Canadian Court Says No “Honor” in Killing Women
30 January 2012
Two and a half years after the bodies of four women were pulled from a car that had plunged into the Rideau Canal at Kingston Mills, Ontario, their murderers have been found guilty. Mohammad Shafia, 58, his wife Tooba Yahya, 42, and their son Hamed, 21, will spend the rest of their lives in prison.
The drama began June 30, 2009, when a black Nissan Sentra was discovered near the Kingston Mill Locks. Inside were the bodies of three daughters of Mohammad Shafia and Tooba Yahya: Zainab, 19, Sahar, 17, and Geeti, 13. Their aunt (Mohammad’s first wife), Rona Amir Mohammad, 50, was found with them.
Mohammad Shafia and his wife reported their daughters missing. When the bodies were retrieved, the pair made a show of grief, but on July 22nd police arrested them and their son as they were heading for Montreal’s international airport. A tip from one of the girls’ relatives, along with evidence the deaths were suspicious, prompted Kingston police to arrest the trio before they could flee the country.
Abuse Escalated As Girls Became Westernized
The Shafia family was originally from Afghanistan. When Mohammad Shafia’s first wife, Rona Amir, proved unable to bear children, he took a second wife. Tooba Yahya bore him seven children. Though Amir requested a divorce, Shafia refused.
When the family moved to Canada after a decade in Dubai, they claimed Amir was a domestic servant so they could bring her with them. As the older girls adapted to western culture, their father became increasingly abusive. Amir and the girls lived in fear for their lives.
Finally, Zainab secretly married her boyfriend to escape the family. The marriage was annulled after one day, and Zainab was returned to the family home. For Mohammad and his wife and son, Zainab’s defiance was unforgivable.
During the trial, jurors heard wire-tap evidence of Mohammad Shafia’s rage at his daughter’s defiance. He said:
If we remain alive for one night or one year, we have no tension in our hearts, [thinking that] our daughter is in the arms of this or that boy, in the arms of this or that man. God curse their graduation! Curse of God on both of them, on their kind! God’s curse their generation! May the Devil s— on their graves! This this what a daughter should be? Would a daughter be such a whore?
The family’s honor was at stake. Sahar and Geeti were also adopting western dress, refusing to wear traditional garb, meeting boys. In a conversation recorded by police, Mohammad Shafia said:
They betrayed humankind; they betrayed Islam; they betrayed our religion and creed; they betrayed our tradition; they betrayed everything.
Three-month Trial Ends in Conviction
Reporting the outcome of the trial, the Montreal Gazette wrote:
Geeti and other Shafia children spoke to police in April 2009, roughly 10 weeks before their deaths. They told officers they feared violence from their father because their sister Zainab had run away from home. Geeti told the police that a week earlier her father had pulled her hair and hit her in the face. She said her brother Hamed punched her in the eye with his fist. The assaults came after the children returned home at 9 p.m., after their curfew, from a trip to a shopping mall.
Father, mother and brother plotted and carried out the murder of these three young women out of a twisted sense of shame that had nothing to do with honor and everything to do with hatred of women. Three younger children were spared, but their lives will be forever marred.
In his last remarks to the three killers, Ontario Superior Court Judge Robert Maranger said:
The apparent reason behind these cold-blooded, shameless murders was that the four completely innocent victims offended your twisted notion of honour, a notion of honour that is founded upon the domination and control of women, a sick notion of honour that has absolutely no place in any civilized society.
No Honor in Murder
Shortly after the murders, Daniel Dale wrote in the Toronto Star:
Ill-informed religious zealotry animates some “honour” murderers. Some perpetrators are encouraged by cultures that tolerate or encourage their violence. And in some countries, honour killing is legitimized by sexist law. Under Iraq’s penal code, for example, an “honour” defence can reduce a prison sentence from life to one year.
Culture and law, however, cannot be solely blamed for the phenomenon. The great majority of residents of patriarchal societies with lenient laws do not kill.
The four women murdered in Ontario are victims in a global war against women. It is a war in which everyone loses – women, men and children. It is time that war ended.
On December 9th, imams across Canada gave sermons condemning domestic violence and honor killings. On December 10th men in the Toronto Muslim community launched their own White Ribbon campaign, pledging “to never commit, condone or remain silent about violence against women and girls.”
May their commitments lead to a safer world for women and girls.
Source: http://www.care2.com/causes/canadian-court-says-no-honor-in-killing-women.html?
SPRAWA R.R. przeciwko Polsce – PRAWOMOCNY WYROK
http://krzysztofmroz.blog.onet.pl/SPRAWA-R-R-przeciwko-Polsce-PR,2,ID450478881,n
Marine gets three months in jail for massacring two dozen civilians
30 January 2012
More than six years after Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich led a squad of Marines into two Haditha, Iraq homes and massacred two dozen civilians, the American serviceman in charge has reached a plea deal.
For nine counts of manslaughter, Wuterich will get three months of confinement.
Wuterich is the last of eight men tied to the November 2005 killing that left 24 Iraqis dead, including women, children and the elderly. It was announced on Monday this week that he had reached a plea with prosecutors during his military tribunal and is now expected to be sentenced as early as Tuesday. According to the Associated Press, Wuterich will face a maximum of three months of confinement, the forfeiture of two-thirds of his pay and a rank demotion.
Of the other seven Marines charged with the now-notorious massacre, one was acquitted and six had their charges dismissed. Wuterich’s attorneys have been confident throughout the ordeal that he would see a similar outcome. "He's going to be glad to have it over because he knows that he'll be exonerated," lawyer Neal Puckett told National Public Radio earlier this month.
On November 19, 2005, Wuterich led a squad of men into two separate homes in the town of Haditha and opened fire on everyone in sight. Prosecutors say that a roadside bomb exploded moments before the Marines stormed the home, and were brought into hysterics by seeing a fellow soldier die in the attack. In response, they went on a rampage and for 45 minutes raided the two homes and were never faced with gunfire. Wuterich later said he instructed his team to “shoot first and ask questions later.”
“My Marines responded to the threats they faced in the manner that we all had been trained,” he explained to CBS’ 60 Minutes in 2007. After the roadside bomb was detonated, Wuterich said that, "My responsibility as a squad leader is to make sure that none of the rest of my guys died. And at that point, we were still on the assault."
Lt. Col. Joseph Kloppel, spokesman of the Camp Pendleton marine Corps base near San Diego, California, told the media on Monday that "By pleading guilty to this charge, Staff Sergeant Wuterich has accepted responsibility for his actions.”
Source: http://rt.com/usa/news/wuterich-haditha-civilians-iraq-513/
Dyrektor dostanie, urzędnikowi zamrozili
8 stycznia 2012r
W ministerstwach i samorządach rośnie liczba osób otrzymujących finansowe bonusy roczne, informuje "Dziennik Gazeta Prawna" i zapowiada podobną tendencję w 2012 r., z tym tylko, że szeregowym pracownikom płace zamrożono, więc nagrody odbiorą dyrektorzy i prezesi.
Z sondy przeprowadzonej przez dziennik wynika, że osób uprawnionych do otrzymania nagród jest coraz więcej. Gazeta podaje przykłady: w Ministerstwie Rolnictwa i Rozwoju Wsi w 2011 r. wypłacono 32 osobom 788 tys. zł nagród za poprzedni rok. Cztery lata temu nagrody dostało 13 osób, w łącznej kwocie 315 tys. zł. Taka sama tendencja jest widoczna w Ministerstwie Pracy i Polityki Społecznej. W tym roku wypłacono sześciu kierownikom 104 tys. zł nagród rocznych.
Nie mniej hojne są samorządy, które dbają np. o dyrektorów szpitali czy prezesów własnych spółek. Urząd Miasta w Katowicach cztery lata temu wypłacił 18 osobom 137,5 tys. zł, a w tym roku 19 osobom - 222 tys. zł. Urząd Miasta w Kielcach wypłacił w tym roku 180 tys. zł nagród, gdy w 2007 r. - 32 tys. W UM w Tychach wydano w tym roku na nagrody prawie 100 tys. zł. Jak będzie w roku 2012?. - na nagrody za 2011 r. dla dziewięciu osób zarezerwowaliśmy w przyszłorocznym budżecie podobną kwotę do tegorocznej, poinformowano "DGP".
Związki zawodowe twierdzą, że w 2012 r. ze względu na kryzys nie powinno się wypłacać kierownikom nagród rocznych. - Jeśli szeregowi urzędnicy mają zamrożone płace, to podobna sytuacja powinna dotyczyć kierowników podległych samorządom jednostek, mówi dr Marcin Zieleniecki z NSZZ "Solidarność". Niepokoi go fakt, iż z roku na rok rośnie liczba osób na stanowiskach kierowniczych, które są uprawnione do otrzymania nagrody.
Źróło: http://biznes.onet.pl/dyrektor-dostanie-urzednikowi-zamrozili,18554,4982350,1,news-detal
Biedapraca
8 styczeń 2012r
Na umowach tymczasowych pracuje już 27 proc. Polaków. To najwięcej w całej Unii - alarmuje "Gazeta Wyborcza" na podstawie raportu Komisji Europejskiej.
Z raportu Komisji Europejskiej o zatrudnieniu wynika, że na umowach czasowych w Europie pracuje już 14 proc. ludzi, a Polska przewodzi Unii w stosowaniu tej formy zatrudnienia. Co więcej, liczba Polaków bez stałych umów szybko rośnie. Jeszcze dziesięć lat temu było ich jedynie 6 proc.
Wśród młodych poniżej trzydziestki aż 65 proc. pracuje na umowach czasowych. Z raportu wynika, że aż 75 proc. Polaków decyduje się na umowy czasowe, bo nie mogą dostać innej pracy.
Źródło: http://biznes.onet.pl/biedapraca,18563,4979560,1,news-detal
USA: Seniorki spowodowały zamknięcie Bank of America
8 styczeń 2012r
Niewielkiej grupce amerykańskich obywatelek w wieku od 69 do 82 lat udało się 5 stycznia doprowadzić do zamknięcia oddziału Bank of America (BoA) w Barnal Heights. Wystarczyły im do tego chodziki i butle tlenowe. Obyło się bez okrzyków, skandowania, gazu łzawiącego i wybijania szyb.
Grupa, która przyjeła nazwę "Dzikie Staruszki" (Wild Old Women) rozbiła obóz tuż przed budynkiem BoA i trzymała transparenty z wezwaniem do dokonywania masowych wypłat z banku („a run on the bank”). Chociaż demonstrujące twierdziły, że nie zaatakują banku, jego personel zamknął drzwi na klucz, gdy spostrzegł zbliżającą się powoli grupę starszych pań.
Demonstrantki usiadły na zewnątrz banku, gdzie przedstawiły swoje żądania, podobne do tych, które przedstawiają niektórzy inni uczestnicy ruchu Occupy: wyższego opodatkowania banków, powstrzymania przejmowania przez nie zadłużonych posesji i obniżenia opłat bankowych.
Źródło: http://lewica.pl/?id=25879&tytul=USA:-Seniorki-spowodowały-zamknięcie-Bank-of-America
Save the Zebra, Black Rhino – or People?
8 Jaunuary 2012
Native people are being displaced in Kenya to make way for a conservation project.
The Samburu are semi-nomadic pastoralists allegedly being driven from their lands to make way for a park by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF).
The land is owned by former Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi and is known for its links to Prince William and Kate Middleton’s engagement on a safari ranch in the area.
The indigenous peoples’ NGO Survival International contend that the Samburu are being brutally evicted, with villages being burned, killing and stealing of their animals and assaults on men, women and children. Survival International has recently received reports of an elder being shot ‘in cold blood.’
At least 2,000 Samburu families now live in makeshift squats on the edge of the land and 1,000 others have been forced to relocate entirely.
Conditions are appalling, and resources scarce. A Channel 4 documentary (see below) caught on camera the extreme nature of these evictions in the Eland Downs area of North-East Kenya.
Jo Woodman, a campaigner for Survival, said they suffered constant harassment from police with women allegedly raped, animals seized and an elder shot.
“There has been an ongoing, constant level of fear, intimidation and violence towards the community, which has been devastating,” Woodman said.
Following waves of violence from the police, the Samburu began legal proceedings against AWF and ex-President Moi, to plead for their rights to the land. A subsequent court demand for no further harassment of the Samburu has been ignored. Survival has recently received reports that women and children have been sleeping in the bush, despite heavy rains, terrified of police violence.
Although the case is still underway, AWF has recently gave the land to the Kenyan government in a move described by the Samburu as an “affront to the justice system.”
The Minister for Forestry and Wildlife said in Parliament, “this piece of land was donated to us … we accepted the donation. This is in keeping with the need to preserve our wildlife which is an economic cash cow to us.”
Lawyer Korir Sing’Oei told the Guardian that a local court had confirmed that the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) had secured registration of the land.
“The court has turned a blind eye to the pleas of the Samburu community and allowed these illegalities to subsist,” he said. “The transfer [of the land to the KWS] is totally unlawful and it’s in flagrant violation of the interests of the Samburu community.”
The land supports a wide variety of species, including rare zebras and black rhinos, and the head of AWF has described Laikipia’s protection as the perfect way to “stimulate tourism.”
One community leader said AWF’s actions go “against the very interests of Kenya’s children” who, Survival International say, remain the best wildlife conservationists.
Survival’s Director Stephen Corry said:
That the Samburu have been driven from their homes in the name of conservation should be vigorously opposed by all who believe in fairness and justice. They simply want to live on and protect this land.
Survival has written to the UN appealing for urgent action to be taken to put an end to the violence and provide assistance to the Samburu.
John Butler, director of marketing for the AWF, told the Guardian:
The African Wildlife Foundation does not condone violence. AWF has a longstanding history of working closely with local communities to ensure that conservation solutions benefit both people and wildlife. Unfortunately, we cannot comment at length on this issue due to a pending court case in Kenya.
Korir Sing’Oei said:
Given the powerful actors who have vested interests in the land, this issue has been really hushed up in the local media.
Source: http://www.care2.com/causes/save-the-zebra-black-rhino-or-people-video.html
Teacher Fired From Catholic School for Using Artificial Insemination
8 January 2012
Artificial insemination is incompatible with immaculate conception it seems. Christa Dias, a technology coordinator at two Cincinnati Catholic schools, was fired from her job after telling her employer that she was pregnant. Initially, the school wanted to fire her for being single and pregnant. However, that is against state and federal anti-discrimination laws, so they decided to fire her for using artificial insemination, a “grave immoral” act that goes against Catholic teachings.
Dias hasn’t found a new job since being fired from the school in October 2010 and she is planning to sue the school for pregnancy discrimination and breach of contract. The school, however, feels it is in the right. Dan Andriacco, the spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati told Cincinnati.com that Dias “has a right to her opinion, but doesn’t have a right to violate her (employment) contract.” That contract stipulates that she has to comply with Catholic teachings, which includes not using artificial insemination.
According to CatholicCulture.org, “the Catholic Church teaches that among humans artificial insemination constitutes such a violation of the dignity of the person and the sanctity of marriage as to be contrary to the natural and divine law.” The explanation goes on to describe artificial insemination as a form of adultery and to condemn the irresponsibility of donors fathering children for whom they will not be responsible. Finally, it explains that:
Even if insemination could be artificially achieved with the husband’s semen properly collected (without masturbation) the papal teaching still points out that any process that isolates the sacred act of human generation from the beautiful and intimate conjugal union of the marriage act itself is inconsistent with the holiness and intimate personalism of that two-in-one-flesh union which alone is appropriate for the generation of a child.
Interestingly, however, if a male employee at the school participated in artificial insemination (thereby irresponsibly fathering children), he would not necessarily be held to the same standard as Dias because it could go undetected. Women who go against “Catholic teachings” are unfairly punished in this regard because their pregnancy is a visible sign. This is a key argument in Dias’ lawsuit.
Rev. James Kiffmeyer, the administrator who fired Dias, has run into some problems with “Catholic teachings” himself. According to Jezebel:
Rev. James Kiffermeyer, was himself suspended in 2002 after allegations arose that he engaged in sexual misconduct with two male high school students. He was reinstated in 2006. The archdiocese of Cincinnati hasn’t escaped the sex scandal that’s engulfed the Catholic Church over the last decade or so, either; in 2003, the archdiocese pled no contest to charges they ignored sexual abuse of boys by clergy in the 1980′s and 90′s. And the two priests alleged to have engaged in the abuse were suspended like Kiffermeyer, not fired as Dias was fired.
A Catholic male official is simply suspended over sexual abuse allegations, but a female teacher is fired for artificial insemination. The Catholic Church works in perplexing ways sometimes.
Despite losing her job, Christa Dias doesn’t regret her decision at all. She loves children and always wanted to have a baby. She told Cincinnati.com that “she’s an amazing gift from God. She’s amazing and wonderful. I would do it all over again for her.”
Urugwaj: Dekryminalizacja aborcji
8 styczeń 2012r
Na ostatniej w tym roku sesji Senat Urugwaju przegłosował dekryminalizację aborcji. W myśl przyjętej ustawy ma ona być legalna w ciągu pierwszych 12 tygodni ciąży.
Nowe prawo trafi teraz do Izby Deputowanych urugwajskiego parlamentu, która - podobnie jak Senat - jest zdominowana przez przedstawicieli rządzącej, lewicowej koalicji Szeroki Front.
Podobne rozwiązania zostały zatwierdzone przez obie izby parlamentu w 2008 r., ale urzędujący wówczas prezydent Tabaré Vázquez zawetował ja. Sprawujący obecnie funkcję głowy państwa José Mujica (na zdjęciu) deklaruje jednak, że ustawę podpisze.
Większość krajów Ameryki Łacińskiej dopuszcza aborcję jedynie w przypadku zagrożenia życia kobiety, poważnych deformacji płodu lub gwałtu.
Sondaże wskazują, że większość Urugwajczyków popiera liberalizację ustawy aborcyjnej.
Źródło: http://www.lewica.pl/?id=25828&tytul=Urugwaj:-Dekryminalizacja-aborcji
Qatar
8 January 2012
Interesting site:
Lee County Deputies Tied Suspect to a Chair, Gagged Him, and Pepper-Sprayed Him to Death
8 January 2012
From Fox 13 in Tampa comes the horrifying story of Nick Christie, a 62-year-old Ohio man who was detained by the Lee County Sheriff's Office for being publicly intoxicated. While Christie's wife asked that he be taken to the hospital, Lee County cops decided instead to strip Christie naked, tie him to a chair, cover his face, and then pepper spray him repeatedly, until he died:
The District 21 Medical Examiner ruled his death was a homicide because he had been restrained and sprayed with pepper sprayed by law enforcement officers. But to this day, nobody has ever been charged with a crime, and the Lee County State Attorney cleared the sheriff's office of any wrong doing.
It's been more than two and a half years and his wife still can't accept what happened.
"I was shocked. This was something out of a horror movie," says Joyce Christie. She said her husband was depressed and was showing signs of erratic behavior a few days before leaving for Florida.
She called authorities and pleaded with them to take her husband to a hospital and be given his medications. Instead, he was taken to jail for disorderly intoxication.
Her lawsuit alleges he was pepper sprayed 10 times over a 48-hour period, at times while in a restraint chair.
Monshay Gibbs was a deputy trainee at the jail at the time. In a video deposition, she testified that she thought the way Nick Christie was treated was excessive.
"He had a spit mask on and was naked," she said on the video while under oath. Gibbs testified that Christie pleaded with guards to take off the spit mask because he couldn't breathe.
Aborcja mniej szkodliwa niż niechciana ciąża
23 grudnia 2011
Według najnowszych badań Brytyjskiej Królewskiej Akademii Medycznej aborcja niesie o wiele mniejsze ryzyko traumy i depresji niż niechciana ciąża. Z raportu wynika, że aborcja nie wpływa znacząco na wystąpienie zaburzeń psychicznych u kobiet, które jej dokonały. Badania dowiodły natomiast, że poważne ryzyko traumy i depresji niesie w sobie niechciana ciąża. Aż 1/3 kobiet, która zaszła w niechcianą ciążę, cierpiała na depresję i lęki. Zdaniem brytyjskich ekspertów niechciana ciąża stanowi olbrzymie obciążenie dla kobiety, niezależnie od tego, czy decyduje się urodzić, czy dokonuje aborcji.
Są to największe badania tego typu przeprowadzone do tej pory na świecie. Narodowe Centrum Współpracy ds. Zdrowia Psychicznego przebadało przypadki setek tysięcy kobiet z lat 1990–2011. Brytyjska Minister Zdrowia Anne Milton zadeklarowała, że wyniki badania zostaną wzięte pod uwagę przy tworzeniu przyszłorocznej strategii zdrowia seksualnego.
Źródło: http://lewica.pl/?id=25804&tytul=Aborcja-mniej-szkodliwa-niż-niechciana-ciąża
US war woe: Suicide kills more soldiers than combat
23 December 2011
When guns fall silent and ceasefires are agreed, wars live on in the minds of the men and women who fought them. And a killer still stalks them, more deadly than the enemies they once faced.
Being in a conflict environment is killing US soldiers. But surprisingly, the biggest killers are not enemy combatants.
For the second year in row, more US soldiers killed themselves than were killed in combat. In 2010, 468 soldiers took their own lives, compared to 462 killed in fighting.
And even off the battlefield, suicide rates continue to soar.
Matthis Chiroux is an Afghanistan war veteran turned anti-war activist.
“I unfortunately inhabit the demographic in the United States that kills itself, pretty much more than any other out there,” he told RT. “We come home feeling terrible, despicable about what we did and what we saw.”
Chiroux is one of thousands returning from deployment feeling detached and conflicted.
“The laws of decency don't apply to soldiers in combat and when you go back to having to apply those laws to yourself all the time that, for many, leads either to the grave or to jail,” he explains.
An average of 18 veterans per day commit suicide and many more attempt it. Last year, 20 per cent of America’s 30,000 suicides was a soldier or veteran.
Dr. Jan Kemp, a director of the National Mental Health Program, says many soldiers come back feeling disconnected from the world in which they once lived.
“It kind of accumulates in disaster. You really start to wonder if you're ever going to be who you were again,” she explained to RT. “Then all of a sudden, they're back. Things happened in their families while they were gone. The situation they come back to is often not the same as when they left.”
In fact, many come back to bleak situations.
A quarter of the homeless in America are military veterans. The unemployment rate among vets hovers above 12 per cent.
Meanwhile, campaigns such as “Army Strong” glorify life as a soldier, and aim to entice America’s young men and women to enlist.
Since retiring from the army, Matthis Chiroux has been committed to showing students the other side of the army experience – the side recruiters fail to mention.
“The unfortunate thing is [what they show] is not the military experience. It’s an advertisement,” he explains to a group of young people who have come to listen to his talk.
It’s all part of the “We are not your soldiers” lecture tour. His message is clear. – “Don't become one of us!”
It is a message he hopes will prevent more students and young people from becoming another grim statistic.
Source: http://rt.com/news/us-soldiers-suicide-combat-487/
Prezydent RPA beszta chrześcijan
23 grudnia 2011r
Prezydent RPA beszta chrześcijan i broni tradycji - donosi "Rzeczpospolita. Jacob Zuma ostro skrytykował rolę, jaką w jego kraju odegrali chrześcijańscy misjonarze. Miejscowi duchowni są oburzeni. – Jesteśmy w szoku - oświadczył przewodniczący Rady Kościołów Afryki Południowej wielebny Mautji Pataki.
Zuma naraził się południowoafrykańskim Kościołom podczas niewinnej inauguracji kampanii na rzecz bezpieczeństwa.
– My, Afrykańczycy, mieliśmy własną tradycję na długo przed nadejściem Ewangelii. Ludzie religijni nazywają te czasy ciemnym okresem, ale my dobrze wiemy, że nie było wtedy ani sierocińców, ani domów starców. Przywlekli je tu ze sobą chrześcijanie – oświadczył.
Po tych słowach w kraju zawrzało. - Jesteśmy w szoku. Jak to się stało, że prezydent, którego uważaliśmy za jednego z nas, uznał chrześcijaństwo za instytucję beznadziejną w kwestii budowania więzi społecznych? - pytał przewodniczący Rady Kościołów Afryki Południowej wielebny Mautji Pataki.
Jak pisze "Rzeczpospolita", chrześcijanie na Czarnym Lądzie bywają traktowani jako symbol kolonializmu i dzieleni na dobrych i złych.
W 1900 roku w Afryce było około 10 mln chrześcijan. Sto lat później – prawie 40 razy tyle. Liczba wyznań przekracza 11 tysięcy, kongregacji – pół miliona. W wielu krajach chrześcijanie regularnie padają ofiarą prześladowań. W innych, np. w RPA, bardziej przypominają wyznawców szamanizmu.
Źródło: http://wiadomosci.onet.pl/swiat/rz-prezydent-rpa-beszta-chrzescijan,1,4980603,wiadomosc.html
Rzeszów: Cztery lata więzienia dla księdza za molestowanie?
23 grudnia 2011r
Zarzuty molestowania seksualnego trzech dziewczynek poniżej 15 roku życia i doprowadzenia czwartej do obcowania płciowego postawiła Prokuratura Okręgowa w Rzeszowie jednemu z księży katolickich z parafii w Małej koło Ropczyc. Oskarżony miał wykorzystać fakt, że był nauczycielem religii pokrzywdzonych dziewczynek. Proces w tej sprawie zakończył się w Sądzie Okręgowym w Rzeszowie.
Prokurator domaga się wymierzenia oskarżonemu księdzu kary czterech lat pozbawienia wolności. Obrońca księdza wniósł o uniewinnienie. Oskarżony nie przyznał się do winy.
Sprawa wzbudziła liczne kontrowersje na Podkarpaciu. W obronę księdza zaangażowali się jego parafianie, nie wierzący w to, że duchowny mógł dopuścić się zarzucanych mu czynów. W sprawie interweniował też poseł Solidarnej Polski Kazimierz Jaworski. Rzeszowska "Gazeta Wyborcza" cytuje fragment listu, jaki poseł wystosował do prokuratury. Parlamentarzysta zażądał w nim utajnienia śledztwa, ponieważ - jego zdaniem - ujawnienie sprawy mediom sprawiałoby wrażenie, że prokuratura walczy z Kościołem katolickim. Poseł domagał się także wyciągnięcia służbowych konsekwencji wobec prokuratorów prowadzących postępowanie.
Wyrok w sprawie księdza z Małej ogłoszony zostanie w przyszłym tygodniu.
Źródło: http://lewica.pl/?id=25777&tytul=Rzeszów:-Cztery-lata-więzienia-dla-księdza-za-molestowanie?
Blue bra girl’ atrocity: Egyptian military police more than brutal (VIDEO)
23 December 2011
Watch:
http://rt.com/news/egyptian-military-cruelty-beating-079/
Saudi Arabia executes 73rd victim of Sharia laws
23 December 2011
In Saudi Arabia, Sharia court sentenced a woman accused of engaging in witchcraft to beheading by a sword. There are some unpleasant details: before dying, the "witch", apparently, suffered as the beheading was performed gradually, in three steps. Thus, she became the 73rd person executed this year in the country living under Sharia.
The Kingdom authorities do not always provide accurate information on the number of women executed in Saudi Arabia. However, from time to time the details in this regard come out.
For example, shortly before the "witch" was sentenced, by the verdict of the Sharia court an Indonesian woman was executed who killed her employer that tried to force her to have sex.
In October, the sentence was carried out against a Saudi woman who killed her husband. In Saudi kingdom death sentence is given to rapists, murderers and drug traffickers. The execution is usually carried out through severing heads with a sword.
Human rights organization "Amnesty International" calls on Riyadh to abolish the death penalty, but also points to a host of other violations of human rights (especially in relation to women), but these calls are not heard in the kingdom.
The last sentence again raises questions about women's issues in Saudi Arabia. Of all Muslim countries, the situation of women in this country raises most questions. Of course, there is Somalia, where raped and, therefore, dishonored women get stoned. But now, when the country is in a state of chaos and division and has no legitimate power, it is difficult to make particular claims against it. However, in Saudi Arabia, where women in the best case are treated as pets, and in the worst case as female species deprived of elementary human rights, it is quite possible to do so.
Yet, the West is very careful in making claims to the royal dynasty. In most cases, the "waters are mudded" by human rights activists and feminist organizations. The Western authorities fighting for the democratization of Libya, Syria and other countries for some reason do not see Saudi Arabia and its laws that many human rights and feminist organizations called "brutal" and "medieval."
However, the events of the "Arab Spring" gave some hope that things will change even in this country. But when and under what circumstances it can become a reality? Vladimir Isayev, chief researcher of the Center for Arab Studies with the Institute of Oriental Studies answered this and other questions in an interview with "Pravda.Ru":
"Indeed, in Saudi Arabia women's inequality to men is particularly noticeable. Suffice it to point to the fact that women cannot go out unaccompanied by men.
However, when someone in the West raises a question about the prospects for the triumph of democracy and human rights in the Arab world, many people forget that some things in Islamic countries simply cannot be undone. In this case, someone is perturbed by the fact that in Saudi Arabia a woman was executed with three hits of a sword, completely losing sight of the fact that it represents one of the Sharia laws. Sharia cannot be undone, as it is impossible to cancel, for example, the Bible. After all, the Quran prescribes certain standards of behavior in everyday life. This is the word of God, and no one can cancel or change it.
For example, Christian churches have their heads. In Islam, there is no authoritative person who would say "no" to the executions, although scholars can issue fatwas, for example, for the murder of Americans.
It is worth noting that Saudi Arabia is not the only example of Arab-Muslim country with strict laws. Each country should be regarded specifically. If you take Syria, such laws do not exist there since it is a secular country. But, for example, in Oman for the abuse of alcohol one can be not only thrown to jail, but given very painful hits with a stick on the soles of their feet. Even in the most liberal of all the Gulf countries, Kuwait, one can be arrested for kissing in public. This is the uniqueness of local laws.
However, even the provisions of Sharia are not performed in practice in all countries of the region. Currently some significant changes are observed in certain countries. If you take Iran, two years ago the women could be stoned for adultery. Now this practice has been suspended.
Another example from the Gulf: Kuwait's government allowed female TV hosts to appear on the central channel without a veil. In addition, recently a member of the local parliament for the first time in history included as many as four women. By the standards of the Gulf it is a real breakthrough. I am not even talking about the fact that in Kuwait and the Emirates, unlike in Saudi Arabia, women are not only able to walk with open faces, but also drive cars. It is important to note that Kuwait is a much more liberal country than its neighbors in terms of finance, which has a certain effect on other aspects of life.
In some countries secular and Sharia justice are combined to a certain extent, and the courts have a clear indication of their jurisdiction. However, in Saudi Arabia no breakthroughs are observed. As I said above, much depends on the specifics of a particular country. Saudis, due to the fact that their territories host the main Muslim shrines - Mecca and Medina - are inclined to further demonstrate their commitment to Islamic values and be closer than others to Islam.
This is not the least factor that affects the conservative nature of the leadership of the country. Should it be surprising that the position according to which "even the best of women is a snake" still takes place? I would not count on any global changes with the women issue in this country in the foreseeable future."
Source: http://english.pravda.ru/world/asia/16-12-2011/119998-saudi_arabia-0/
Sexual abuse is a huge problem in schools
23 December 2011
Report shows a high incidence of sexual abuse and impunity in the school environment
by Camila Queiroz, Adital
Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia all recorded a high number of cases of sexual abuse against children and adolescents in the school environment. The report, Sexual violence in educational institutions, the NGO Women's Link World Wide Foundation for the Defense and the Return of Human Rights of Bolivia, the Center for Reproductive Rights and the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico have rebuilt data on the situation, it indicated the groups most vulnerable and some causes of impunity.
In Colombia, the Attorney General received 542 complaints of maltreatment and sexual abuse in public schools in the country. From this number, only 32 cases had resolution, that is to say, of every 10 complaints, only 1.5 are solved.
The National Institute of Forensic Sciences reported, in 2007 alone, 337 cases of sexual abuse in schools. According to the agency, just in the city of Bogotá, sexual violence increased 138% between 2004 and 2008.
Between 2004 and 2005, according to the Institute, there were 937 cases of sexual abuse of students in public and private educational centers (577 and 360, respectively), which would give an average of one case per day. The number does not give the exact dimension of the problem, since many victims remain silent.
In Mexico, the situation is repeated. A recent study cited in the report said that just in Mexico City, between 2001 and 2010, there were 3,242 complaints to the Unit for Attention to Child Sexual Abuse and Maltreatment (Uamasi). School personnel committed 85.78% of them - principals, teachers, administrators and staff - and the other 15% refers to other sexual abuse or harassment.
In Bolivia, a report published in 2004 by the Committee of Latin America and the Caribbean for the Defense of Women's Rights (Cladem) says more than 100 sexual assaults occured within the Bolivian schools.
As one of the factors that favor impunity, the National Board of Parents of Families pointed to the light punishment for the perpetrators. "The maximum punishment that we know of from the authorities is a location change for teachers when they are accused of physical or sexual abuse, and so it is. Only a teacher who raped a girl is in prison," he says.
Ecuador, declared by the World Bank as a country with a "serious crisis of sexual violence among young people," records that of every four students, there is one case of sexual abuse, while one in three students knew of some of these cases. Among the perpetrators are mostly teachers, classmates and neighbors. In 2006, the World Bank report notes that 22% of students reported being victims of sexual abuse.
Similarly, the National Council of Women published a report in 2006, claiming that in a group of 1000 young people, 121 suffered kissing and touching without consent, 32 were raped, 27 have experienced oral and genital sexual abuse. According to the study, 84.3% of complaints points to women as victims ..
As a factor that favors the violations, the report cites poor infrastructure and security in public schools in Latin America and the Caribbean, which affects poor children and adolescents much more
"Schools with fewer security systems are located mostly in poor, marginal, rural and indigenous districts where risk factors of sexual violence increase," he noted.
Also it is possible to ascertain that particular groups are most at risk of sexual violence, according to ethnicity, indigenous status, immigration, sexual orientation or being a disabled person. "The children and young immigrants, both internal and external, are much more vulnerable, while not being able to rely on their documents for fear of being deported, or endangering their immigrant or undocumented families " he explains.
Also according to the document, the fear of losing face is nourished by institutions to help cover up cases of abuse, as well as lack of interest and lack of prioritization of the issue by judicial authorities facilitates perpetrator impunity.
Source: http://english.pravda.ru/society/stories/17-12-2011/120001-Sexual_abuse_is_problem_in_schools-0/
Orangutan Prostitute
23 December 2011
Yes! Its been happening, some sick bastards have been using Orangutan’s as prostitute’s! How? Apparently even dressing the animal up like a female and the customers come to get some. This is so sick, i can imagine how sad these people are! They the customers know its a orang utan and they are there for just that!
The report :
Meet Pony. She is an orangutan from a small village in Borneo, where they cut down the rain forest to render the palm oil that gets sold abroad and made into lip salve, ice cream, chocolates, and cheese crackers.
ice: So tell us about Pony.
Michelle Desilets [Director of the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation]: Pony is an orangutan from a prostitute village in Borneo. We found her chained to a wall, lying on a mattress. She had been shaved all over her body.
I want to cry.
If a man walked near her, she would turn herself around, present herself, and start gyrating and going through the motions. She was being used as a sex slave. She was probably about six or seven years old when we rescued her, but she had been held captive by a madam for a long time. The madam refused to give up the animal because everyone loved Pony and she was a big part of their income. They also thought Pony was lucky, as she would pick winning lottery numbers.
Did the clients realize that they were in fact getting an orangutan?
Oh yeah, they would come in especially for it. You could choose a human if you preferred, but it was a novelty for many of the men to have sex with an orangutan. They shaved her every other day, which meant that her skin had all these pimples and was very irritated. The mosquitoes would get to her very badly and the bites would become septic and be very infected, as she would scratch them constantly. They would put rings and necklaces on her. She was absolutely hideous to look at.
How did you get her away from there?
It took us over a year to rescue her, because every time we went in with forest police and local officers we would be overpowered by the villagers, who simply would not give her up. They would threaten us with guns and knives with poison on them. In the end it took 35 policemen armed with AK-47s and other weaponry going in there and demanding that they hand over Pony. It was filmed by a local television crew and in the background of the film when we are unchaining Pony you can hear the madam crying hysterically, screaming, “They are taking my baby, you can’t do this!” There is no law enforcement in Indonesia so these people didn’t face any sentence or anything for what they had done.
Source: http://www.abinesh.com/delirium/posts/orangutan-prostitute/
Senate refuses abortion rights for rape victims in the military
12 December 2011
In addition to turning America into a warzone and allowing indefinite torture and detainment for US citizens, Congress this week decided that women raped while serving their country won’t be provided coverage for abortions.
The military, it turns out, is pro-life.
Despite one-in-three women in the military saying they’ve been sexually assaulted while serving their country, the Senate decided to skip over voting for an amendment which would have allowed rape victims coverage for abortion. While civilians employed by the US government are given such protection, coverage is not granted in the US military. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) hoped to change that with an amendment tacked on to the National Defense Authorization Bill, but on Wednesday the Senate decided to move pass the legislation without bringing it up for vote.
Congress did, however, agree to make some changes while voting for the act for Fiscal Year 2012. Should President Barack Obama approve the National Defense Act, sodomy and bestiality in the armed forces will be legalized and Americans can be detained and tortured indefinitely for suspected terrorism crimes without ever being charged.
Sen. Shaheen’s amendment would have lifted the ban on military insurance coverage for victims of rape and incest that sought abortions. Past legislation had granted such coverage, but it was dropped back in 1984. The current law, enacted in 1996, keeps DoD medical personnel from performing abortions and another provision keeps Pentagon funds from covering the procedure except in cases where it threatens the life of the mother.
“This policy is fundamentally unfair to the more than 200,000 women serving in our military," Shaheen said this week.
"They are fighting to protect our rights, and they should have the same rights to reproductive health care as our civilian employees.""I'm very disappointed that we will not have a chance this week to debate this critical issue," Shaheen tells Huffington Post,"but we'll keep fighting for it as long as we have to."
As Shaheen and other activists continue that fight, thousands of women are sexually assaulted annually in the military. The Department of Defense reveals that in Fiscal Year 2010, 3,000 sexual assaults were reported within the ranks of the armed forces, a quarter of which it lists as rape. Coincidentally, the Federal Bureau of Investigation voted this week to alter their current definition of what constitutes rape, broadening it to include sexual assaults involving penetration not currently contained within the text.
The DoD adds that while the number of reported rapes are substantial, close to 90 percent of rapes are unreported. Compared with civilian life, rape within the military is nearly double.
Source: http://rt.com/usa/news/women-military-rape-abortion-465/
Independence Day 11-11-2011
12 December 2011
On 11 November 2011 Poland „celebrated” it’s Day of independence (in 1918 the country regained independence from Russia, Austria and Prussia). On that day the Polish nationalists, fascists, right wingers and football hooligans march through the main cities of Poland. The nationalists registered their march through the main street of Warsaw. Anti fascist organizations (consisting of anarchists, leftists and similar) also organized and registered their rally/demonstration on the same day and street. At noon the anti fascists met on Marszalkowska Street next to Pl Konstitucji where at 15.00 the nationalislts were to meet and begin their march. The anti fascist movement set up a colorful stage, played music and guests made speeches, present were new parliamentarians that were recently voted in and included feminists, anti clericals, gays and transsexuals. The crowd consisted of mostly young people (anarchists, samba groups) but there were also some middle aged and older people and even children. There were also anti fascists from Western and Eastern Europe, the anarchists surrounded our group for protection; they in turn were surrounded by the police who also surrounded the nationalists. The nationalist side also included some politicians and people from West and Eastern Europe. The anti fascist group consisted of about 2000 – 3000 people. The nationalists from 7000 to 10000, the police force was at about 2000 (reinforcements came from all over Poland).
At 15 00, when the nationalists planned to move along Marszalkowska street, we were there blocking them. The nationalists wanted to get through, the police resisted. The nationalists started throwing stones, petards, crackers and the like. The police used water cannons, gas and similar. Scuffles and fights broke out; some nationalists, anti fascists, passer bys and police were injured. Police cars and 2 TV vans were smashed, one set on fire. Over 200 people were arrested. The street square where most of the fighting took place was badly vandalized. The fights ended in the late evening and the police informed the anti fascist demonstrators when it was safe to go home, there were some incidents on the way back between the anarchists and fascists, especially in the metro.
Before the event, on the Polish anarchist websites, there was much written about the German anarchists and other anti fascists groups that planned to join our demonstration (and indeed a few Germans did make it into our group). However, many of them seem to have come by organized transport (buses) and the police were informed of this and most were stopped by the police in the vicinity of the buses, some got through though and police chased them, on the way the Germans were attacked by the fascists and nationalists, there were scuffles and fights, many Germans, Polish and other anarchists were arrested and kept in police stations for many hours or even days The Polish police was brutal and racists in its treatment, especially towards the Germans.
In one of the scuffles on Nowy Swiat Street the Germans got into a fight with nationalists and a group of people wearing national historical army costumes (there were many historical events taking place in the city at that time). The Germans claim they were attacked by football hooligans and fascists and that the costumed people joined the fight and started to beat the Germans up, the nationalists say the Germans attacked first. Later much media coverage was related to the Germans attacking Polish patriots.
Some of the German anarchists tried to hide in a nearby building belonging to a leftist organization called Krytyka Polityczna, here the police found and arrested them. They searched the building and found such “weapons” as pepper gas, knuckle dusters, teeth and knee protectors, wooden shanks and masks. The people from Krytyka Polityczna say they do not know how these weapons got there. It has been suggested that they were put there by the police.
The media are critical that local authorities allowed both demonstrations to take place side by side, and the President wants new laws enforced, so that local authorities can deny registration of demonstrations if they feel they may lead to violence. Many organizations both left and right are critisizing this as this may mean no more legal demonstrating for any group. This law has to be passed before parliament, at the moment it is only a plan. Many people taking part in both demonstrations are of the opinion that the police and authorities wanted this violence to happen; now the law can be changed and the government can have a free hand when it comes to future demonstrations. It may indeed be true that many undercover cops were inside the nationalist group, starting some of the fights and the crowd followed. It is obvious that the police knew who was coming to demonstrate. Indeed, whilst the Germans were stopped a busload of Ukrainian nationalists made it to Warsaw without any problems whatsoever and took part in the street fights (they are reported to have been quite surprised at the aggression shown by the police). Football hooligans from all over Poland also had no problems whatsoever in getting into the city. It seems only the German anarchists were planned to be caught.
Some leftists say that the anti fascist demonstration on the particular street the fascists were trying to march through was unnecessary and that we should have had our own “happening’ march/demonstration somewhere else. That we were stupid enough to be provoked by the liberal Gazeta Wyborcza (newspaper) that backed the anti fascists demonstration.
I recall last year’s anti fascist demonstration, we blocked the fascist march illegally and the police were quite brutal towards us, making sure the nationalists could pass through. This year it was the other way round, the police was “protecting” us from getting massacred by the fascists and nationalists. But indeed, the nationalists outnumbered both us and the police, should they have broken into our demonstration, we would have been “massacred”, first to be beaten up would have been the colored guests and the well known gay politician who was actually beaten up by both hooligans and the police last year. Politically such violence towards us would not have looked very good for the government.
Written: Malgorzata Swiatek
Katoliccy fundamentaliści grozili śmiercią aktorom
12 grudnia 2011r
Dyrektor z jednego z najbardziej prestiżowych teatrów Paryża - Théâtre du Rond-Point na Polach Elizejskich był zmuszony zwrócić się 8 grudnia o ochronę do policji po tym, gdy katolicy grozili śmiercią aktorom przed premierą sztuki "Piknik na Golgocie" autorstwa madryckiego dramatopisarza Rodrigo Garcíi. Dwaj mężczyźni powiązani z katolickimi ugrupowaniami fundamentalistycznymi zostali aresztowani w czasie minionego weekendu, gdy próbowali rozbroić system ochrony teatru.
Kilka grup katolicki wezwało do pokojowych demonstracji, spotkań modlitewnych i układania białych kwiatów przed budynkiem teatru każdego wieczoru, w którym sztuka ma być wystawiana. Arcybiskup Paryża poprowadzi modlitwy protestacyjne przeciwko spektaklowi w Katedrze Notre Dame.
Demonstracje przeciwko "Piknikowi na Golgocie" mają miejsce po narastającej fali fundamentalistycznych akcji protestacyjnych przeciwko niektórym najbardziej znanym francuskim teatrom. W ich ramach rzucano w widzów jajkami, detonowano bomby "smrodowe" i w trakcie przedstawień paryskiego Teatru Miejskiego (Théâtre de la Ville) wbiegano na scenę z transparentami "Powstrzymać Chrystianofobię".
W mijającym roku pewien młody fundamentalista katolicki zniszczył fotografie artystyczne w galerii w Awinionie, m.in. "Piss Christ" ("Olej Chrystusa") nowojorskiego fotografika Andresa Serrano. Bardziej pokojowe protesty katolików przybierały formę klęczenia z drewnianymi krzyżami na zewnątrz scen od Lille do Tuluzy i były szeroko komentowane na stronach kulturalnych francuskich czasopism i dzienników, zazwyczaj w kontekście rosnących nastrojów prawicowych i nacjonalistycznych wśród chrześcijan.
Jak przypomina guardian.co.uk, w Paryżu demonstracje chrześcijan mają złą sławę odkąd w 1988 roku miał miejsce zamach bombowy na kino w Paryżu, w którym wyświetlano "Ostatnie kuszenie Chrystusa" Martina Scorsese. Komentatorzy polityczni spekulują, że cześć tradycjonalistycznych chrześcijan stanowi odłam Frontu Narodowego po przejęciu w tej partii przywództwa prze córkę Jean-Marie Le Pena.
"Piknik na Golgocie", którego akcja toczy się na scenie udekorowanej bułkami hamburgerowymi, zawiera kilka odniesień religijnych, w tym czytania i scenę ukrzyżowania, jednak krytycy teatralni uważają, że określanie tej sztuki jako antykatolickiej czy bluźnierczej jest absurdalne. Jednak arcybiskup Paryża André Vingt-Trois, choć nie oglądał spektaklu, nazwał go "celowo obraźliwym" i zapowiedział, że poprowadzi modlitwy protestacyjne w Notre Dame.
Dyrektor Théâtre de Rond-Point Jean-Michel Ribes zaapelował o spokój. Powiedział, że teatr, którym kieruje nie jest antychrześcijańskim, antymuzułmańskim czy antyżydowskim miejscem, lecz rolą artystów jest walka przeciwko duszącym dogmatom. Poradził widzom, by przybywali godzinę przed rozpoczęciem przedstawienia, by zdążyć przedostać się na swoje miejsca na widowni przez ochronę przypominającą tę, która obowiązuje na lotniskach.
Paryscy wysocy urzędnicy odpowiedzialni za kulturę pośpieszyli bronić społeczności teatralnej przeciwko próbom uczynienia ze sztuki zakładnika, mówiąc, że "milcząca większość" katolików nie podziela dążenia do ograniczenia wolności wypowiedzi. Jednak Civitas, grupa lobbująca za rechrystianizacją Francji, wezwała do potężnych pokojowych demonstracji ulicznych "przeciwko chrystianofobii".
Poprzednio arcybiskup Paryża protestował przeciwko wystawieniu sztuki włoskiego reżysera Romeo Castellucci’ego "O twarzy. Wizerunek Syna Boga", w czasie której - w trakcie końcowej sceny - dzieci szkolne rzucają w tytułowy wizerunek granatami. Podczas Międzynarodowego Festiwalu Teatralnego Dialog we Wrocławiu w październiku spektakl ten spotkał się z entuzjastycznym przyjęciem niemal całej widowni i nie wzbudził protestów hierarchów.
żródło: http://www.lewica.pl/?id=25730&tytul=Francja:-Katoliccy-fundamentaliści-grozili-śmiercią-aktorom
Sudanese Journalist Jailed for Reporting Activist’s Rape
7 August 2011
According to Sudan’s constitution, freedom of the press is guaranteed. However, in practice, the right to report news without fear of government action seems fragile at best, and nonexistent at worst. Case in point: Fatima Ghazali, a journalist who was recently jailed for a month for writing articles about the alleged rape of Safiya Ishaq, a female activist who was arrested following an anti-government protest in February. The judge in Khartoum convicted Ghazali of publishing lies, and ordered her to pay a $600 fine or spend a month in prison. She chose to go to prison.
Five more people are set to be tried for writing about Ishaq, who claimed online in several videos that she was repeatedly raped by three security officers after she was arrested. Ishaq has since fled the country, but the journalists remain to face the consequences. Ghazali’s editor at the Sudanese daily Al-Jarida was also fined, and has yet to decide whether he wants to pay the fine or spend the requisite amount of time in jail.
The punishment meted out to Ghazali and her editor is not severe, but it’s troubling on a number of levels. First of all, although Ishaq’s rape had not been proven, the journalists had the right to write about her allegations. Certainly, until the case was proven, they were not “publishing lies.” Secondly, the nonprofit organization Reporters Without Borders claims that this is part of a pattern of harassing journalists for covering human rights violations.
In a piece last month, RWB condemned the “disgraceful way the authorities are harassing and prosecuting journalists in Khartoum and the north of the country in an attempt to silence them and stop embarrassing revelations about human rights violation by the security forces.”
It’s only a matter of days before South Sudan gains international recognition, as the elections last winter stipulated, and the interim constitution expires. While journalistic freedom may get better in South Sudan, many fear that North Sudan will crack down on freedom of the press in its attempts to enforce Sharia law. In other words, it’s hard to know what will happen to journalists after Saturday. Although Ghazali’s imprisonment is unjust, she may have escaped with a lenient punishment compared to could happen to journalists who are perceived to threaten the Sudanese government in the future.
Source: http://www.care2.com/causes/sudanese-journalist-jailed-for-reporting-activists-rape.html
Are Women and Girls Groomed to Choose Oppression?
7 August 2011
At the Women’s Worlds congress in Ottawa, Canada, one of the July 4 sessions focused on marketing to the female demographic, looking at examples of marketing aimed at girls and women. While the presentations covered a broad spectrum, from Bratz dolls to “female friendly” businesses to Barbie and the pornification of society, they all came back to the idea that the marketers are grooming women and girls to choose oppression. The advertising industry in particular, and society in general, sends continuous messages to the female demographic, from infancy through to adulthood, about who they are, what they should desire, and who they should try to become.
Lauren Levesque from Ottawa, Canada spoke about her paper, Media Culture, Artifact, and Gender Identity: An Analysis of Bratz Dolls. Through interviews with mothers and daughters, she found that the mothers were concerned about the influence of the dolls on their daughters. They described the dolls as materialistic, trashy and hyper-sexualized. The girls, on the other hand, saw the dolls as nice, fashionable, and beautiful. They didn’t see the negative aspects of the dolls that their mothers saw. In her research, Ms. Levesque found that girls took pleasure in being objectified. She concluded that children should not be put in a position of making that type of choice and should instead just be able to enjoy being young without being pushed to identify with much older and damaging images of what a girl or a woman should be.
Nathalie Elaine Meza Garcia, a political scientist from Colombia, talked about Barbie. Her presentation, Imperceptible Fundamentalisms: The Perfect Woman and the Multiple Roles of Barbie, examined the ways in which Barbie tries to break away from the patriarchy while still leaving her oppressed. The Barbie slogan, “We Girls Can Do Anything” is intended to be a feminist slogan. However, there is a hidden inconsistency in this. Women are able to enter into new spaces and break glass ceilings, but they still have to be beautiful, nurturing mothers, good homemakers, and doting wives. Essentially, women have demanded the right to do anything that men can do, but they have not shed any of their old roles, duties or subjugation in doing so.
Joanne Baker from Flinders University examined the way that the color pink is being used to restate and refresh gender stereotypes of oppression in her presentation called Resisting Pink – Again. She gave examples of the way that pink is used to market to women, such as a “female friendly” accreditation that is given to brands in Australia that merit a “pink tick” for catering to women (e.g. a garage that doesn’t have nude photos of women and has client toilets). She also showed images from numerous other campaigns aimed at women, from products designed to support breast cancer to make-up to financial services. Ms. Baker characterizes this type of marketing as post-feminist pink because it appeals to women who not only reject and oppose feminism, but who also hold an attitude that feminism is no longer relevant (even though it did have a use in the past). Essentially, these marketers are using the convenient parts of feminism (e.g. empowerment, choice) to appeal to a progressive female audience and convince them to buy products and buy into concepts that further their oppression.
Some women are speaking out against this pink oppression. Ms. Baker told the audience about the sisters Abi Moore and Emma Moore who founded the Pink Stinks campaign in the United Kingdom.
Source: http://www.care2.com/causes/are-women-and-girls-groomed-to-choose-oppression-video.html
Norway's child protection services do whatever they want to helpless children
7 August 2011
"You will never see your mother again," officers of Norwegian child protection agencies (barnevern) told a 13-year-old boy when they were taking him away from his home. The boy is currently living with a foster family. His biggest dream now is to get back to his mother as soon as possible. Seeking help, the boy wrote several emails to the Russian embassy, in which he told his story.
Pravda.Ru has published several articles about the fate of Irina Bergseth (maiden name Frolova), a Norway-based Russian citizen. The woman accused her Norwegian husband of committing sex crimes against their common four-year-old son.
Local social services took the woman's two children away from her. The younger son, Misha, a citizen of Norway, was delivered to his father. The elder son, Sasha, 13, a Russian citizen, was settled in a foster family.
Also read: Russian mother desperately fights for her abused children in Norway
Sasha's new parents do not let him use the computer. However, the boy managed to send several emails to the Russian embassy pleading for help. Pravda.Ru also had a chance to read them.
"Hello. I would like to write a little about the day when I was taken away from home. That day I was staying with by best friend, we were playing PlayStation. My mother called and said that the barnevern were coming to take me. She said that they had already taken Misha. The first thing that the officers of child protection services told me was - I will never see and live with my mother again. I got very angry and upset. I've never been so unhappy in my life before. I wanted to break away from the car, but the officers blocked the doors. They were going and saying that it was bad for me to live with my mother. They were also saying that it would be much better for me to live in the place where they were taking me and my brother, but this is not going to be better!" Sasha wrote in pain.
"I was talking to the lady who was conducting my case in the child protection agencies. She didn't want to listen to me. She told me that she had made the decision and that she didn't want to change anything. She also said that she wanted to do her best to deliver me to a foster family for good. I told her that she was ruining my life, but she was just saying that I will be fine afterwards. This is not true. Nothing is going to be fine. By July 6 it will be five weeks since I saw my mother last. I don't know what to do. It all looks so bad."
Afterwards, the boy wrote about the "advantages" which he obtained in his new family.
"On Saturday, I seriously turned my ankle and strained tendons. They showed me to the doctor only in two days. The doctor said that I should go on crutches, but the lady, whom I live with, refused to buy them for me. I couldn't walk, but they wouldn't even rent the crutches. There was a graduate party at my school on June 21, but they didn't let me go there. They didn't let me go with my class to a theme park on June 23 either. I was waiting for that day for a whole year, but they don't let me go anywhere. The child protection services are breaking my life."
"They give little food to me, and I am hungry. Nobody wants to talk to me or take care of me in the foster home, and I feel completely lonely here. Please help me get back home to my mother, or please help me find a lawyer so that I could sue the child protection services. I've already written to a local committee (Fylkesnemda), but they don't want to listen to me. Please, help me get back home to my loving and caring mother. I have a very good family. I can't use the computer or the phone. I feel so bad. PLEASE HELP ME GET BACK HOME!"
Watch the video of Irina Bergseth's story
It is hard to read these emails. Even if we cast away the emotions about the fact that the officers told the boy that he would never see his mother again, there is one question left. What is the boy being punished for? What has be done for Norway if they treat him so cruelly?
He was deprived of his mother, as well as of his friends. Sasha was also forbidden to attend skateboarding and tennis classes, which he really enjoyed. Was he sent to a foster family or to prison? Don't child protection services understand that they are committing violence against the boy and damage his psyche? We would like to believe that those people have higher education. What if they are perfectly aware of what they do, but they still do it deliberately? What if they want to make him understand at such an early age, what it is like - to struggle against the system. His mother tried to do it and accused a Norwegian citizen of pedophilia, but now they want to declare her a mentally unbalanced individual. Social officers said that to Sasha too.
They keep on telling him that it will be better for him to live in a foster family rather than with his mother, which is insane. They do not show any support to the child. They didn't take him to the doctor, they didn't buy him the crutches, they didn't replace his brackets on time. Now the boy has to start the brackets all over again. This is an expensive dental procedure, which the boy's family may not want to pay for.
If the boy's mother were doing such things to him, the authorities would impute her with those actions. However, this all seems to be absolutely normal if such things happen in a foster family. This brings up the question of double standards in the approach of Norwegian child protection services. One and the same action or minor offense can be approached depending on who committed that action - either parents of origin or foster parents.
There is another very important aspect. Sasha is a Russian citizen. If Norwegian social agencies believe that it is bad for him to live with his mother, then they are supposed to send the child to Russia, where he has a grandmother and an uncle. Those people are ready to take care of the boy. However, they do not even think to think about such an opportunity. The child has virtually become a prisoner in Norway.
Norwegian child protection services are very powerful. They can literally kidnap children from their parents. There is also the court, of course, to which Irina Bergseth turned. There is a hope left that the woman will be able to have at least her elder son back.
However, there are incidents when desperate parents prefer not to wait for the court ruling, which may not be in their favor. They prefer to act at their own risk.
A family from Poland, who had their child taken away from them by the authorities, experienced a similar situation. The story was published by the Polish newspaper Super Express. The Polish citizens - a man, his wife and daughter - arrived in Norway several years ago. Everything was fine until the day when their daughter, Nicola, a girl of nine years, didn't come back home from school. As it turned out, it was the child protection services that didn't let her go home.
Also read: Russian boy becomes sex slave to his own father in Norway
Officers said that the girl was coming to school in a very bad mood for several days. This was the reason for the services to accuse her parents of improper treatment of the child. As a matter of fact, the girl was very worried about her grandmother, who fell seriously ill in Poland. The girl's parents were told that their daughter would be delivered to a foster family. The parents did not want to wait for the court ruling and addressed to Polish detective Krzysztof Rutkowski.
The detective helped Nicola escape from the foster family. The girl got into his car and they drove away towards the border.
"I am still so shocked that it is hard for me to collect thoughts. When I was able to put my arms around my daughter, it was the happiest moment of my whole life," Nocola's mother said.
The detective said that he was acting in accordance with FBI's principles: "You can do anything you want before you get caught," he said.
Polish newspapers wrote that Norwegian child protection services take as many as 300,000 children away from their parents, presumably immigrants, every year. They mostly target children of the white race, who do not differ much from Norwegian foster families. It is possible that someone simply wanted to have a pretty little girl from Poland. Luckily, her story had a happy ending. But who is going to help Sasha Frolov?
Source: http://english.pravda.ru/society/stories/07-07-2011/118418-norway_children-0/
Women jailed for miscarriages
7 August 2011
Four days after Chinese immigrant Bei Bei Shuai gave birth to her daughter Angel, she rocked the baby in her arms for hours in an Indianapolis hospital room. There, in her mother’s arms, the newborn passed away.
Shuai is in another facility in Indiana now, but its Cell Block 3F in a Midwest jail. She’s been there for three months, awaiting trial for the murder of her baby.
It began on December 23, 2010. Shuai was planning to wed her boyfriend until she found out that he was already married and was leaving her and the unborn child behind. In a panic, Shuai tried taking her own life by ingesting rat poison she purchased from a hardware store. She was hospitalized, treated and gave birth to Angel on New Year’s Eve. Four days later, though, her child died from complications resulting from the poisoning. When doctors took Angel off of life support, they alerted the authorities.
Shuai spent a month in a psychiatric ward before trying to rebuild her life. Since March, however, she has been behind bars facing life imprisonment for murder and attempted foeticide.
“This case has huge implications for pregnant women, not only in Indiana but across the country," says American Civil Liberties Union attorney Alexa Kolbi-Molinas to The Guardian recently. "If we allowed the state to put a woman in jail for anything that could pose a risk to her pregnancy, there would be nothing to stop the police putting in jail a woman who has a drink of wine or who smokes. So where do you draw the line?"
And Kolbi-Molinas is quite right. Similar incidents are occurring across the United States. Women are facing life-long sentences in cases that transcends both anti-abortion legislation and civil rights.
In Mississippi, Rennie Gibbs is facing life behind bars after she suffered a miscarriage back in 2006. Gibbs was only 15 years old at the time, and while there is no concrete evidence linking her miscarriage to a cocaine abuse problem she suffered from, prosecutors have nonetheless charged her with “depraved-heart murder,” which carries a mandatory life sentence. The charge, which has been on the books for 130 years, is filed when someone is suspected of placing another in imminent danger of death.
“If it’s not a crime for a mother to intentionally end her pregnancy, how can it be a crime for her to do it unintentionally, whether by taking drugs or smoking or whatever it is,” says Gibbs' attorney Robert McDuff, a civil rights lawyer.
Nearly 40 states in the USA have fetal homicide laws on the books. These legislations were largely created so that third-parties could be prosecuted in cases of assault against an expecting mother, but according to the National Advocates for Pregnant Women, only one man has been charged with the crime in South Carolina, while 300 women have been arrested under the law.
Amanda Kimbrough is facing a ten year sentence in Alabama after the state charged her with “chemical endangerment” after her premature baby passed away minutes after birth. The state attests that she had taken drugs during her pregnancy, though Kimbrough argues otherwise. “That shocked me, it really did,” Kimbrough tells The Guardian. “I had lost a child, that was enough.”
Authorities didn’t file charges against Kimbrough until six months after she lost her child. In the meanwhile, she is raising her other three children.
“It’s just living one day at a time, looking after my… other kids,” she says to The Guardian. “They say I’m a criminal, how do I answer that? I’m a good mother.”
“States pass feticide or similar laws in the wake of some horrible violence against a pregnant woman,” says Lynn Paltrow of the National Advocates for Pregnant Women. “They claim to protect pregnant women, but prosecutors turn around and use these laws against women themselves.”
“This is the predictable and increasingly common result of a growing movement in this country to treat fertilized eggs, embryos and fetuses as separate from the women who carry them,” she adds.
Indiana University law professor David Orentlicher tells The Daily Beast that these cases of prosecution are radical interpretations of inane laws. In the case of Shuai, charged with killing her daughter Angel, Orentlicher says that Shuai’s state doesn’t even prosecute people for attempted suicide, “so now this prosecutor is saying, ‘If you're suicidal, you better not get pregnant, because you might get thrown in jail.’ That to me is a very important constitutional problem.”
“We just don't miss a chance to kick a woman in the head,” adds author Jeanne Marie Flavin. “What happens is that when a woman needs counseling, or when a woman needs drug treatment, when a woman would most benefit from the support, we respond to her most harshly. We lock her up.”
“I hope it’s not a trend that’s going to catch on,” says Robert McDuff, Gibb’s attorney in Alabama, to The Guardian. “To charge a woman with murder because of something she did during pregnancy is really unprecedented and quite extreme.”
Unprecedented until now, it seems. With cases continuing to be opened up against the mothers, the ordeal looks far from over.
Source: http://rt.com/usa/news/women-shuai-pregnant-life/
Video: The Permaculture Garden
See attached:
http://www.care2.com/causes/video-the-permaculture-garden.html
Vietnam Era Weapon Being Used to Clear the Amazon
7 August 2011
Agent Orange is one of the most devastating weapons of modern warfare, a chemical which killed or injured an estimated 400,000 people during the Vietnam War — and now it’s being used against the Amazon rainforest. According to officials, ranchers in Brazil have begun spraying the highly toxic herbicide over patches of forest as a covert method to illegally clear foliage, more difficult to detect that chainsaws and tractors. In recent weeks, an aerial survey detected some 440 acres of rainforest that had been sprayed with the compound — poisoning thousands of trees and an untold number of animals, potentially for generations.
Officials from Brazil’s environmental agency IBAMA were first tipped to the illegal clearing by satellite images of the forest in Amazonia; a helicopter flyover in the region later revealed thousands of trees left ash-colored and defoliated by toxic chemicals. IBAMA says that Agent Orange was likely dispersed by aircraft by a yet unidentified rancher to clear the land for pasture because it is more difficult to detect than traditional operations that require chainsaws and tractors.
Last week, in another part of the Amazon, an investigation conducted by the agency uncovered approximately four tons of the highly toxic herbal pesticides hidden in the forest awaiting dispersion. If released, the chemicals could have potentially decimated some 7,500 acres of rainforest, killing all the wildlife that resides there and contaminating groundwater. In this case, the individual responsible was identified now faces fines nearing $1.3 million.
According to a report from Folha de São Paulo, the last time such chemicals were recorded in use by deforesters was in 1999, but officials say dispensing the devastating herbicide may become more common as officials crack down on environmental crimes.
“They [deforesters] have changed their strategy because, in a short time, more areas of forest can be destroyed with herbicides. Thus, they don’t need to mobilize tree-cutting teams and can therefore bypass the supervision of IBAMA,” says Jerfferson Lobato of IBAMA.
While Agent Orange was originally designed to clear forest coverage in combat situations, its use became a subject of controversy due to its impact on humans and wildlife. During the Vietnam War, the United States military dispersed 12 million gallons of herbicide, impacting the health of some 3 million, mostly peasant, Vietnamese citizens, and causing birth defects in around 500 thousand children. Additionally, the chemical’s effect on the environment have been profound and lasting.
Last month, over three decades after Agent Orange was last used in Vietnam, the US began funding a $38 million decontamination operation there. Meanwhile, in the Brazilian Amazon, the highly toxic chemical was being discovered anew and sprayed over the rainforest.
Source: http://www.care2.com/causes/vietnam-era-weapon-being-used-to-clear-the-amazon.html
Wear makeup or leave Harrod's tells employee
7 August 2011
For refusing to wear makeup, 24-year-old Melanie Stark, says she was “driven out” of her job as a sales assistant at the luxury Harrods department store in Britain. Stark had worked in the HMV department of Harrods for four years without wearing makeup; indeed, she had, says the Guardian, not worn makeup during her interview and had been rated as one of the best employees by her manager. But following a “floor walk” by senior managers last August, she was sent home for not wearing makeup.
Stark first worked part-time at Harrods for three years; after earning a masters in philosophy, religion and ethics from King’s College London, she worked full-time. She has legal grounds to sue Harrods under the Equality Act 2010, says Lawrence Davies, director of Equal Justice solicitors:
“On the facts, she performed her role well for five years without makeup, so it is clearly not a valid prerequisite for her role.”
Of the dress code, he said “custom and practice would suggest that her contract has changed over the years to allow her to not wear makeup”.
Stark said she had been given a copy of the Harrods dress code at her interview, and that the store had not sought to enforce it until that “shop walk” in August. The day after that, she was sent to work in a stockroom. Stark’s floor manager then told her she had the choice of wearing makeup or leaving, but she was at first able to return to work until June of this year, when a new floor manager informed staff that she had to be “made up.” Stark was transferred to another store but decided to resign as she felt it was “time to move on.”
The dress code for female employees of Harrods is, to put it lightly, quite exacting:
The two-page “ladies” dress code stipulates: “Full makeup at all time: base, blusher, full eyes (not too heavy), lipstick, lip liner and gloss are worn at all time and maintained discreetly (please take into account the store display lighting which has a ‘washing out’ effect).”
When Stark refused to follow this, she was told she could “see what you look like with makeup” at a workshop. Says Stark:
“I was appalled. It was insulting. Basically, it was implying it would be an improvement. I don’t understand how they think it is OK to say that.”, she said.
I know what I look like with makeup. I have used it, though never at work. But I just could not see how, in this day and age, Harrods could take away my right to choose whether to wear it or not.”
Stark had complied with all other aspects of the dress code. “But it’s not like wearing black trousers, or a black shirt. This is my face.
“Make up can change your features completely, especially if I was to wear all of what they were asking. I would look like a different person to me. And I never chose to look like that.”
The dress code for male employees is quite barebones, notes the Guardian:
Slick, sophisticated and debonair”, male staff must apply deodorant, trim fingernails, avoid visible tattoos and refrain from growing mutton chops.
Mocking aside, the Harrods code is deeply sexist. It implies that a woman, however clean and presentable, can pass muster only in heavy makeup, and that anyone opting out is by default shabby and below par. The only sensible course of action, with both the Harrods mandate and its sales’ staff’s faces, is to take it all off and start again.
Debating about the dress code, and the insistence of female employees wearing makeup, at a department store might seem trivial. But it’s appalling to read about the store’s attempts to dictate and control the appearance of its workers — especially after tacitly allowing Stark to go without makeup for quite a few years — and the punishment meted out to those who don’t “look right.” Clearly Harrods has a long way to go before grasping the basic truth of “beauty in the eye of the beholder” and, until it does, it’s got a big clod of mud in its eye.
Source: http://www.care2.com/causes/wear-makeup-or-leave-harrods-tells-employee.html
India's 'shocking' child sex-change epidemic
7 August 2011
Parents in the world's largest democracy are reportedly paying surgeons $3,200 to turn their young daughters into young sons. What's behind this "social madness"?
India is known for preferring sons over daughters, most famously (and troublingly) through the demographics-distorting practice of gender-based selective abortion. Now, hundreds of daughters age 1 to 5 are reportedly being "converted" into boys through a sex-change procedure known as genitoplasty, which involves fashioning a penis out of female sex organs, then pumping the child full of male hormones. This "shocking, unprecedented trend, catering to the fetish for a son," is drawing parents from all over the nation to the central Indian city of Indore, the Hindustan Times reports. Ranjana Kumari, a top campaigner against aborting girls, blames "social madness" and greed. "People don't want to share their property or invest in girls' education or pay dowries," she says. "It's the greedy middle classes running after money." But there's no excuse for forcing your child to have a sex change… right?
Right. This is beyond awful: India obviously takes its gender preference seriously: It has 7 million more boys than girls under age 6, says Meredith Carroll at Babble. But really, "it’s beyond reprehensible to subject babies to something this serious because of financial reasons or social status." And whether a parent aborts the girl or turns her into a mental and physical wreck of a boy, it's "beyond warped" that any willing parent wouldn't just love their child, "whichever flavor comes their way."
"Extreme gender preference: Indian baby girls…"
OK, but the money factor isn't insignificant: As awful as these "corrupt doctors" are for re-gendering the girls, it's arguably better than the "not uncommon" blight of female infanticide, says the International Business Times. And when you compare the $3,200 it costs to turn your daughter into a son (of sorts) to the dowries of up to $100,000 that parents have to cough up for their daughter's wedding, "it is not surprising to see girls' parents" opt for the sex-change.
"Indian daughters transform into sons to avoid dowry"
There must be a better explanation: The "claim that this is all the fault of the 'greedy middle classes running after money' sounds dubious," says Margaret Hartmann at Jezebel. And there's a grey area for intersex children born with male and female sex organs. But if this "shocking" report is true, and parents really are forcing healthy girls to become sterile boys, that's "an extreme and very disturbing sign of what happens when women are undervalued."
"In India, parents push surgical attempts to turn girls into boys"
Source: http://theweek.com/article/index/216854/indias-shocking-child-sex-change-epidemic
Soon one in four children will be living in poverty
7 August 2011
Corporations in the United States are showing massive profits, even as unemployment stays high and the recession lingers on. Now, it’s becoming even cleared who are the hardest hit by this growing gap between the rich and the poor — young children.
According to CBS News, the poverty rate for children is expected to shortly hit 25 percent, making this the largest group of children to suffer since the Great Depression. Poverty is defined as a family of four making less than $22,000 annually.
Signs of poverty? More and more children living in cars, vans, and even short term motel rooms. And the numbers are increasing quickly. “Nationwide, 14 million children were in poverty before the Great Recession. Now, the U.S. Census tells us its 16 million – up two million in two years. That is the fastest fall for the middle class since the government started counting 51 years ago.”
Many of the children rely on their schools for free lunches, sometimes even breakfasts, because those are the only meals they eat. They go to bed hungry. And in order to not have to rescind the Bush era tax cuts on millionaires and corporations, food stamp programs that could provide additional support to stave off hunger are being cut instead.
So much for protecting the most vulnerable.
Source: http://www.care2.com/causes/soon-one-in-four-children-will-be-living-in-poverty.html
Greece: The beginning of the end, or a new beginning?
7 August 2011
It is by now patently obvious that there are two languages being spoken in Athens: that among the political class desperate to keep the Euro-wagon on the road and that of the Greek people, who at this moment represent the hearts and minds of the Europeans, which spells out the message that we do not want this European Union.
Apart from not wanting this European Union, we do not want this system. They told us their system was better than the Socialist model, which provided free maternity care, maternity leave, free and excellent education and extra-curricular activities, free and excellent University or further education, a guaranteed job, a decent salary, subsidised staple foodstuffs, including drinks, subsidised or free public utilities, a free house, a free or subsidised car, social mobility, excellent and free healthcare, including dental treatment, security of the State, security on the streets, protection against drug addicts, porn and the filth that was practised in western countries, free or subsidised transportation, social mobility, a decent and indexed pension and free leisure-time activities, free or heavily subsidised medication and culminating with a free funeral.
They told us their model was far, far better. And what, pray, was their model? For a start, never did they ask us whether or not we wanted the Euro and rarely did they ask us if we wanted the EU or any part of it. In the few instances they did so, at best the vote was split 50-50 and more often than not, the poll was a resounding NO!, after which they cynically reworded the vote, altering the date to a sunny June summer's day when everyone would be at the beach and repeated the exercise ad infinitum until people gave up and the YES won - with around 13 per cent of the electorate. A classic example of anti-democracy.
And had this undemocratic European Union bothered to explain things to us and then asked us how we wanted to vote, we would have said Nein! Merci beaucoup! Or in plain English, Up yours!
Did they ask us if we wanted the Euro? Did they tell us that prices would more than double while salaries stagnated? Did they tell us that the convergence rates would now bind us together using parameters which might make sense in Germany but are nonsensical in an economy like Portugal's? If they imposed such measures, then why didn't they start giving German salaries to the Portuguese?
Oh no, they wouldn't do that, would they? They gave southern Europe northern European obligations without the tools to meet them then told northern Europe to pay for it. It is a lose-lose situation, being the fault of neither region but being very much that of the wonderfully colourful motley group of Eurocrats who glued this monster together against our collective will.
But that is not the end of it. They told us that in this wonderful capitalist system, the small trader had the freedom to start his own business and to employ people, making the economy grow, creating prosperity. Fine. But is this what they implemented? No, it is not. Look around you on the high street and tell me how many small traders you can see. Correct. Now deny that the Big Spaces have swallowed them all up, that the same Big Spaces negotiate supply contracts which favour not small local producers but the mega-sized food brokers who are selling foodstuffs at future prices, being the cheapest on the market, of what age and of what quality?
Coupled with that, the European Union destroyed the industry, agriculture and fisheries in many countries, handing everything to Germany, France and Spain in that order, destroying jobs down the line for future generations. True, the governments in power upon and just after adhesion to the EU are to blame but that does not help anyone now, does it?
And then what did they do? To compound everyone's misery, they started trading not in concrete commodities - oh no, that wasn't enough - they started trading in weird and wonderful products, SWAPS, futures and you name it, based entirely upon speculation, gambling our money away, and worse, taking out all sorts of insurance policies to guarantee what they now term "complex products". Complex, or downright stupid?
Because if anyone had bothered to ask the people along the way, those of us who know a little about these things would have stood up and explained to the others that what they were doing was bound to fail.
But we haven't finished yet. Added to this, these grey failed politicians called Eurocrats (who couldn't get a proper job at home and had to waste billions - I repeat, billions - of our money in Strasbourg and Brussels) not only spent all the money they had, deriding centuries of economic history based upon the Gold Standard but then started issuing sovereign debt, which amounts to loans for the future based upon an interest rate controlled by the credit rating of ratings agencies in New York (Standard and Poor's, Moody's and Fitch). Now, just how much more manic could this get?
Right. It couldn't. Greece is the end of the line, the beginning of the end of this European Union, or put another way, the end of its beginning. However, it could also be a new beginning.
This time let us be sensible. Let us ignore the fantastic ideas of those generations of Eurocrats which have put us in the situation we are in, imposing this madhouse upon us without asking our opinions and this time, let us do what the people of Europe want us to do. How?
Well to be frank, I believe the chair of economics in all Universities these days should be banished because if the economics courses are supposed to produce economists, who in turn have created this hell-hole they call market-oriented capitalism and now say there is no Plan B, because it is too complicated, then it doesn't say very much for them collectively, does it?
It is perfectly simple and not complicated at all. For a start let us stop all this nonsense about the possibility of Greece "going bankrupt". Greece is bankrupt, period. Otherwise it wouldn't need constant injections of billions upon billions in loans, which anyway it will have to pay back tomorrow at inflated prices. How is its economy supposed to grow at a rate which will mean that the same situation will not arise again, and again, and again? For the Greeks, impending disaster, under this system, is a given factor. For those who pay, well, how long are the northern Europeans going to see their hard-earned tax-Euros squandered in paying off Greece, or Portugal, or wherever, when "Sorry Mr. Brown, we cannot afford your cancer treatment because we've bailed out Greece, oh! and we've spent 300 million Euros supporting terrorists in Libya"?
So if the economists cannot produce a Plan B, then I will. Greece? Be a man, drop this Euro nonsense, tell the European Union to go stick it and go back to the good old Drachma, not the silly little coins they were using just before the Euro, but the proper Drachma, those nice chunky coins and those pretty notes which actually meant something.
OK? Now, having done that, pass a law accepting your debt in Drachma. Done that? OK now devalue your Drachma by half and lo and behold! You have halved your debt! Ha ha ha, well not quite but almost. Numerically you still have the debt to pay but you can now use the Drachma for leverage to renegotiate it over time. Forget those interest rates, and tell them the interest rate will be created by you, otherwise there isn't a cent for anyone. Send Moody's and Fitch and their friends to Hell where they belong.
Now, they will tell you that this is terrible for imports because things will cost more. Exactly! Now here is your opportunity. It if costs more to import, then conversely it will be easier to export and now you can start rebuilding the production units you lost, recuperating your agriculture, fisheries and industries the EU took away from you and wow, you will see that you are suddenly creating jobs and markets and futures for your children. The State is receiving more income from taxation and hey! Yes you can afford those social schemes they told you that you could not. Amazing, eh?
The world is a small place, you can go out there looking for places downstream for your production to flow into. And with this upturn in your economy, buoyed by consumer confidence (the Feelgood Factor, the National Card - Buy Greek!) now you can start thinking of real economic growth, servicing your debt as and when you are able to pay it and building a brighter future for your children.
Tell Brussels to shove its Convergence Rate up where the Sun does not shine, tell Strasbourg to keep its silly Euro laws about the size of oranges and the size of a fishing net you cannot use but foreigners can, in your waters.
And there, ladies and gentlemen, we have the funeral of this European Union. Rest in Peace and for Christ's sake stay there. See, they tried to go too far, too fast. The experiments should never have left the desks of the academics who, bored shitless no doubt on a Friday afternoon, maybe after lunch, cooked them up. What were they smoking?
All the people of Europe every really wanted was a loose trading agreement life EFTA, possibly something along the lines of free movement of goods, maybe to a certain extent of peoples and nothing more than that. If our dear beloved Eurocrats had bothered to ask us in the first place…
So Greece, please. Your first move, the rest of us will follow suit! Or are the 500 million citizens of Europe too cowardly to fight this monstrosity which is today eating away our pensions and the futures of our children? Mark my words, if the monster isn't killed today it will come back tomorrow. With its friends.
Source: http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/29-06-2011/118350-greece_end-0/
Poland prepares to go on crusade against Russia
7 August 2011
Poland has become the chairing state of the European Union on July 1. The plans of the Polish administration leave no doubt about the fact that the country will primarily be concentrated on the eastern direction of its foreign policy. In particular, Poland will do its best to pull Ukraine and Belarus apart from Russia.
Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk shared the ideas about the goals of the country's presidency at the EU several days ago. During his speech in the parliament, Mr. Tusk said that Poland was supposed to become the new engine of the European Union. When speaking about priorities, Tusk particularly mentioned the signing of the agreement of association between the EU and Ukraine. The first priority for Poland will be the reanimation of Eastern Partnership Program, the anti-Russian undertone of which was obvious a long time ago.
The program was proposed three years ago by foreign ministers of Poland and Sweden. It unites Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Moldavia, Ukraine and Belarus. All these countries were promised the following: economic assistance, simplified visa regime, the establishment of the free trade zone and special relations. No one has ever asked Russia to join the program. Therefore, the program is an attempt to create a zone of EU influence near Russia's western and southern borders.
Poland attaches great importance to the Eastern Partnership Program indeed. It can be seen even on the website of the Polish Embassy in Moscow. The website has a special section devoted to the program. The website particularly says that the European Commission has assigned 700 million euros for the program, but the Poles intend to seek more. The central event to be held during the Polish presidency is the summit of the Eastern Partnership, which is slated to take place in Warsaw on September 29-30 of this year.
"Eastern Partnership is a historical chance for Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Belarus, Ukraine and Moldavia…For the first time in history, the countries of Eastern Europe will have an opportunity of close economic and political integration with the European Union…The cooperation is based on common values, such as freedom, democracy, the supremacy of law and human rights," the website of the Polish embassy says.
In addition, Poland will create the international solidarity fund during its presidency. The fund will deal with the promotion of democracy in other regions of the world. The first "client" of the fund is Belarus. The EU toughened sanctions against this country, and Poland had had no small share in that. The Poles have not left North Africa out of attention either. African "fighters for freedom" will also have the honor of enjoying Poland's attention.
There is a contradictory detail to all that, though. Alexander Lukashenko, "Europe's last dictator," the "suppressor of freedom" and his Belarus are listed as members of the Eastern Partnership Program. Lukashenko was barred from traveling to the countries of the European Union. However, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said on June 27 that Belarus would be invited to the summit of the partnership on the top level.
Here we go. Democracy is democracy, but geopolitics is geopolitics. Lukashenko is a bad guy, but they just turn a blind eye on it for Eastern Partnership. It is also interesting that the Poles do not say a word about Russia in the program.
Pravda.Ru asked expert opinion from Mr. Bogdan Bezpalko, a historian at the historical department of the Moscow State University, an expert for Poland.
"What do you think could be an explanation to the fact that for Eastern Partnership, the Poles are ready to shrug off the fact that Belarusian politicians are not allowed to enter EU states?"
"Geopolitics always stipulates double standards. If there's a need to use military force, they speak about national interests. If they need to interfere in other countries' affairs, they speak about democracy. This is the situation about Poland's approach towards Belarus. The cooperation within the framework of the partnership does not cancel Poland's intention to show influence on political affairs in Belarus to promote democracy there."
"Does Poland want to create its sphere of influence in the east of Europe with the help of Eastern Partnership?"
"This is exactly so. Historically, Poland considers Ukraine and Belarus its sphere of influence, and the country dreams to have it back. The Poles have another goal - to turn Eastern Europe into the main region of the European Union. Poland has been striving for its leadership in the region, and they will try to use their presidency in the EU to anchor this leadership.
"How do Belarus and Ukraine treat Poland's Napoleonic plans about themselves?"
"When Russia is putting pressure on Belarus, there is a risk that Belarus will eventually turn towards Poland and the European Union. The administration of Belarus is willing to cooperate with Russia, but they are also interested in cooperating with the West. The Ukrainian administration has changed, but the country is still interested in having special relations with Poland. Ukraine also wants to become a member of the European Union. Ukraine has been cooperating with NATO actively. Even if it never becomes a NATO member, it will remain close to the alliance."
"How can you explain the fact that Poland does not mention Russia at all in the description of Eastern Partnership Program?"
"This program does not take account of Russia's interests at all. Poland tries not to consider Russia as a serious entity in Europe and Eurasia. They also continue to perceive us as a geopolitical rival. It has been so for many centuries, and it still remains so today."
"Poland wants to set up the international solidarity fund. Do they really want to democratize North Africa?"
"They most likely speak about North Africa to attract more attention. Poland is the staunchest ally of the United States in Eastern Europe, so it has to confirm it. However, this is most likely nothing but a declaration. North Africa is a prerogative of the USA and several countries in Western Europe. Poland is more concentrated on Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic States, Central Europe, Moldavia and the Caucasus."
"Do you think that Poland's presidency at the EU will aggravate the relations between Russia and the European Union?"
"The relations between Russia and the EU will most likely become more intense because of Poland. Poland will be attracting more attention to these ties, but they are not going to be ruined."
Source: http://english.pravda.ru/world/europe/01-07-2011/118369-poland_russia-0/
Cops beat, pepper spray and use Tasers on disabled boy
27 July 2011
A 17-year-old mentally handicapped boy was opening the front door of his Dayton, Ohio home last week when police officers fired their Tasers at him before allegedly punching the disabled child in the chest and spraying him with mace.
The incident arose after Jesse Kersey was approached by police while on his bicycle on Saturday. The boy’s mother, Pamela Ford, says her son was stopped by Officer Willie Hooper, who tried to talk to Jesse and then mistook his speech impediment as disrespect towards the copper.
"Prior to the incident … Hooper knew Jesse and was aware that Jesse was mentally challenged,” his mom says in a statement, however.
Jesse became confused when Hooper began shouting, though, and began heading back to his house to have his mother help communicate for him. There on his front steps, two officers fired their Tasers.
In a civil complaint filed in Dayton County this week, Ford says that officers Hooper and John Howard entered the home and struggled with her son. She says Jesse was standing against a door with his hands in front of his face, pleading “Please quit, please quit.”
Then, she says, Jesse was “hogtied” and put into a police car and eventually jail.
Around 20 officers by then had reported to the scene.
Ford says that a neighbor tried to alert Officer Hooper that Jesse was disabled as he chased the boy home, but he was instead reprimanded and warned that, if he did not go back into his home, he would be arrested.
That statement also notes that "On numerous occasions, Ford and a family friend, Christopher Peyton, informed Officer Hooper that Jesse was mentally challenged/handicapped, and that Jesse did not understand what was happening.”
"At no point, even after being advised of Jesse's mental challenge/handicap by Jesse's family and numerous bystanders, did defendant Hooper, defendant Howard, or any other police officer present, attempt to communicate with Jesse or explain in terms he could understand as to why Jesse was being chased.”
Somehow the ordeal pinnacled with Jesse being booked for assault, resisting arrest and obstructing official business, but charges were dropped by the Montgomery County Juvenile Court after the boy was declared incompetent.
Now Ford and an attorney are seeking damages from Dayton and Hooper and Howard for false imprisonment, false arrest, malicious prosecution, assault, battery, excessive use of force, infliction of emotional distress and civil conspiracy.
The plaintiffs have not yet specified how much they will be seeking, other than it should total at least $300,000. Richard Boucher, a Dayton attorney for over 23 years, will be representing the family.
Source: http://rt.com/usa/news/disabled-boy-hooper-jesse/
48 gwałtów na godzinę - ten kraj to piekło dla kobiet
27 lipca 20111r
Najnowsze dostępne dane wskazują, że w Demokratycznej Republice Konga każdej godziny gwałconych jest 48 kobiet. To ponad 400 tysięcy ofiar rocznie. Sprawcy zazwyczaj pozostają bezkarni, a Kongijki - bez pomocy.
Grupa amerykańskich badaczy posłużyła się informacjami z rządowego spisu zdrowotnego przeprowadzonego w 2007 roku. Na ich podstawie naukowcy oszacowali skalę problemu w DR Konga. Wyniki przedstawili w "American Journal of Public Health". Są szokujące.
O tym, że przemoc seksualna w sercu Afryki jest codziennością, wiadomo było od dawna. Dekady brutalnej kolonizacji i wyzysku, potem lata dyktatorskich rządów, a na końcu krwawa wojna domowa - w państwie o takiej historii ludzie zawsze cierpią.
Jednym z założeń na temat gwałtów w Kongo było to, że są one sprawką zdziczałych partyzantów i żołnierzy, a zdarzają się przede wszystkim w niestabilnych wschodnich prowincjach. Kobiety są tam traktowane jak łupy wojenne. Seks jest nagrodą za walkę i sposobem na poniżenie przeciwnika.
Wyniki ostatnich badań pokazują, że było to uproszczenie. Za co czwarte przestępstwo seksualne odpowiadają nie ludzie z bronią, a cywile. Czasem są to mężowie lub sąsiedzi ofiar. Do gwałtów dochodzi równie często w spokojnej Prowincji Równikowej na zachodzie, jak i w płonącym Północnym Kiwu na wschodzie.
"Przemoc seksualna jest znacznie powszechniejsza, niż sądziliśmy", przyznają autorzy badań. Co gorsza, jest społecznie akceptowana, a na pewno - przemilczana. Gwałciciele, w większości przypadków, nie ponoszą kary za swe czyny.
Przeraża także rozmiar problemu. Raporty ONZ podawały do tej pory, że w DR Konga dochodzi do 16 tysięcy gwałtów rocznie. Bazowały na statystykach policyjnych i danych ze szpitali. Amnesty International mówiło o 40 tysiącach. Autorzy najnowszego badania twierdzą, że prawdziwa liczba przekroczyła 400 tysięcy. To około 1150 ofiar dziennie. - Ale to i tak ostrożne wyliczenia, ponieważ wielu przestępstw ciągle się nie zgłasza z powodu stygmatyzacji, wstydu i przeświadczenia o bezkarności sprawców - powiedziała BBC dr Amber Peterman, szefowa zespołu naukowców.
Odwrócić wzrok
Konflikt w DR Konga był najkrwawszym od końca drugiej wojny światowej. A właściwie - ciągle jest. Chociaż oficjalnie zakończył się w 2003 roku, walki nadal trwają. Są zacięte, brutalne i zdecydowanie zbyt częste, by mówić o jakimkolwiek pokoju.
Ale chociaż przez ostatnie kilkanaście lat zginęło w Kongu ponad 5,5 miliona osób, świat przez długi czas całkowicie ignorował tę tragedię. Kiedy w mediach co i rusz mówiono o Kosowie, Afganistanie czy Darfurze, w Demokratycznej Republice z powodu wojny umierało 45 tysięcy ludzi miesięcznie. W większości były to dzieci do piątego roku życia. W wieczornych wiadomościach rzadko jednak o tym wspominano.
Aktywiści, którzy chcieli nagłośnić koszmar Konga, nie potrafili zainteresować tym tematem stacji telewizyjnych. Nic dziwnego. Opinia publiczna chce śledzić konflikty, które potrafi pojąć; takie, w których podział na dobrych i złych jest jasny, a geneza i rozwiązanie - wystarczająco proste. Wojna w DR Konga była zupełnie inna. W kongijskiej dżungli walczyło osiem państw, około 50 organizacji partyzanckich i jeszcze więcej grup etnicznych o skomplikowanej historii. Biły się o władzę, minerały, prestiż; z chwilowości, w zemście lub w samoobronie. W kraju panował głód, w zatłoczonych obozach dla uchodźców i przesiedleńców wybuchały zarazy, z dymem szły kolejne wioski. Jeden lud cierpiał, a za chwilę sam mordował. Raz rządowi żołnierze ochraniali miasteczko przed rebelianckim atakiem, a za moment gwałcili jego mieszkanki.
Jak opisać takie piekło? Jak przedstawić je w 30-sekundowym filmie, wytłumaczyć w krótkim artykule, uchwycić na fotografii? W zawiłościach kongijskiej wojny gubili się eksperci i dziennikarze. Przypadkowy obserwator nie miał szans go zrozumieć. Media na całym świecie odpuściły więc sobie Kongo.
Przełom nastąpił w 2007 roku. Wtedy to koalicja organizacji praw człowieka, ze wspieranym przez hollywoodzkie gwiazdy Enough Project na czele, postanowiła zmienić swoją nieskuteczną strategię. Aktywiści zrezygnowali z prób pokazania pełnego spektrum kongijskich nieszczęść. Zamiast tego skupili się na dwóch plagach: "krwawych minerałach" oraz przemocy seksualnej. Był to strzał w dziesiątkę. Nowa kampania przemówiła do zachodniego - zwłaszcza amerykańskiego - odbiorcy. Zainteresowanie tematem wzrosło, podobnie jak liczba darczyńców. W kongijską sprawę zaangażowały się najsłynniejsze nazwiska: Ben Affleck, Angelina Jolie czy Javier Bardem.
Publiczna presja zmusiła Kongres USA do zainteresowania się kryzysem w Demokratycznej Republice. Wielu polityków, w tym ówczesny senator Barack Obama, zajęło się tworzeniem ustawy, która miałaby chociaż trochę poprawić los Kongijczyków. I być może coś się uda w tej kwestii osiągnąć. W tym roku w Stanach w życie wejdzie tzw. akt Dodd-Frank Wall Street, który mocno zaostrzy przepisy dotyczące importu minerałów mogących pochodzić z obszarów wojennych. Ma to ukrócić proceder pośredniego sponsorowania okrutnych watażków przez koncerny wykupujące kongijskie bogactwa naturalne.
Kwestia tysięcy gwałtów przyciągała do tej pory mniej uwagi niż "krwawe minerały". Wyniki badań opublikowanych w "American Journal of Public Health" mogą to zmienić. W anglojęzycznej prasie wywołały już poważną dyskusję na ten temat. A niewątpliwie jest o czym mówić.
Porażka
We wschodnich prowincjach, szczególnie w Północnym i Południowym Kiwu, od lat grasują rozmaite bojówki. Większość z nich nie przestrzega żadnych zasad. Odczłowieczeni przez lata ukrywania się w tropikalnym lesie, partyzanci regularnie napadają na niechronione wioski. Bez skrupułów plądrują, palą i mordują. Gdy gwałcą, to nierzadko w grupach i z użyciem kolb karabinów i kijów.
Wojsko niewiele robi, by temu zapobiec - jest źle wyszkolone, niezdyscyplinowane i brakuje mu sprzętu. Żołnierze sami bywają gwałcicielami, zwłaszcza gdy wkraczają do miejscowości podejrzanych o wspieranie wrogów. Nie jest to zaskoczeniem. Wielu mundurowych to byli rebelianci, którzy w wyniku umów z rządem zostali wcieleni do armii. Przynieśli za sobą stare przyzwyczajenia.
Zgwałcone kobiety znajdują się w tragicznej sytuacji. Mają nie tylko rany psychiczne, ale i bardzo poważne uszkodzenia ciała. Stan kongijskiej służby zdrowia jest fatalny, więc lekarze przeważnie nie są w stanie przeprowadzić bardziej skomplikowanych operacji. Pomoc psychologiczną uzyskują tylko te ofiary, które mają szczęście spotkać pracowników organizacji humanitarnych.
Co gorsza, skrzywdzone kobiety niekiedy zostają zupełnie same. Ich sąsiedzi spoglądają na nie z mieszaniną odrazy i zawstydzenia, a mężowie opuszczają. - Mówią: "nie mogę więcej patrzeć na moją żonę". Za każdym razem, gdy ją widzą, widzą kogoś, kogo nie potrafili ochronić - wyjaśniła w rozmowie z BBC Jocelyn Kelly z Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. - Czują się jak przegrani i nie potrafią sobie poradzić z tym inaczej, niż odrzucając małżonkę i zaczynając od nowa.
Bezkarność
Jak jednak wytłumaczyć skalę przemocy seksualnej w spokojniejszych częściach kraju?
Kongijskie społeczeństwo jest bardzo patriarchalne. To świat zdominowany przez samców. Rola kobiety ogranicza się do rodzenia dzieci i usługiwania mężczyznom. A seks jest traktowany jak jedna z usług. - Podejście jest takie, że seks to święte prawo mężczyzny i nie ma sposobu, by go nie dostał, gdy ma ochotę - stwierdziła Jocelyn Kelly. Kongijczycy biorą zatem to, co chcą. Jeśli trzeba, również siłą.
Prawo nie odstrasza gwałcicieli. Mimo wprowadzenia wielu zaostrzeń w 2006 roku, nadal jest bardzo nieskuteczne. Kodeks automatycznie definiuje dziś seks z osobą poniżej 18. roku życia jako gwałt. Jednocześnie zezwala na zawarcie małżeństwa w wieku 15 lat, co jest w Kongo normą. - Społeczeństwo, a nawet sędziowie, nie uznają nowych praw, bo są niedostosowane do kongijskiej kultury i realiów - powiedziała agencji IRIN Marie Josée Mijinga ze Stowarzyszenia Sędzin.
Chociaż policja ma obowiązek rozpoczęcia dochodzenia w ciągu 30 dni od otrzymania powiadomienia o gwałcie, w praktyce wygląda to inaczej. W zeszłym roku, według ONZ, w Południowym Kiwu zajęto się jedynie co trzecią sprawą. Problemy finansowe są głównym utrudnieniem. Policji brakuje wszystkiego - samochodów, paliwa, sprzętu biurowego. - Jeśli policjant nie ma nawet długopisu do pisania, to nie może prowadzić śledztwa czy pojechać w teren, by zbierać dowody - wyjaśniała Mijinga.
Według niektórych danych, zaledwie jedna na dwadzieścia ofiar zgłasza przestępstwo. Jest ku temu wiele przeszkód. Po pierwsze - pieniądze. Urzędnicy - od mundurowych po sędziów - często domagają się opłat związanych z "kosztami dochodzenia". Po drugie - sprawcy, jeśli już staną przed sądem, dostają zazwyczaj bardzo niskie wyroki. Kobiety obawiają się, że po wyjściu z więzienia ich ciemiężyciele mogliby się mścić za "donos".
Trzecim powodem jest wstyd. W kulturze Bantu zgwałcona kobieta uważana jest za nieczystą. Wiele z nich woli więc milczeć, by uniknąć potępienia. Niekiedy posuwa się to jeszcze dalej. - Tradycyjni wodzowie wiosek albo seniorowie rodów widzą poślubienie młodej dziewczyny przez jej oprawcę za swego rodzaju odkupienie win - opowiadała reporterowi IRIN sędzina Epiphane Zoro. - Czasem nawet takie rozwiązanie wybiera ofiara. Woli to od zniesławienia, a szans na inne małżeństwo praktycznie już nie ma, bo nie jest dziewicą - dodała.
Czy można wyobrazić sobie większe zwycięstwo gwałciciela?
5 Saudi Women Arrested For Driving
27 July 2011
Two weeks ago, at least 42 Saudi Arabian women took to the streets by driving in a number of cities. While Saudi Arabia does not have a written law banning women to drive, women are forbidden to do so under a fatwa or religious edict issued by senior clerics following Wahhabism, a strict brand of Sunni Islam. Women have since been driving in the capital of Riyadh and other cities in defiance of the ban. But on Tuesday, five women were detained as they drove in the city of Jeddah on the Red Sea Coast, according to rights activist Eman al-Nafjan.
According to the New York Times, the four women, ages 21 and 22, were riding in one car. After being arrested by the religious police, they were taken to a police station where they signed a pledge not to drive again just as Manal al-Sharif, the Saudi women whose arrest and imprisonment sparked the campaign to overturn the driving ban, was forced to sign a pledge not to drive again or to speak to reporters before she was freed.
The fifth woman was arrested separately on Tuesday night while driving in the neighborhood of Suleimaniyah.
As Nafjian said in the Guardian:
“This is the first big pushback from authorities it seems. We aren’t sure what it means at this point and whether this is the start of a harder line by the government against the campaign.”
Saudi Women for Driving, described by the New York Times as an “informal coalition of leading Saudi women’s rights activists, bloggers and academics,” said that “these arrests will encourage more women to get behind the wheel in direct defiance of this ridiculous abuse of our most basic human rights.” Citing the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere as an inspiration, Saudi Women for Driving has called for “high-level western backing” and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and female leaders in Europe have indeed expressed their support for the campaign.
However, Clinton’s support of the campaign could put her and the Obama administration in a “delicate position,” as Saudi Arabia is a close US ally and the US is “increasingly reliant on Saudi authorities to provide stability and continuity in the Middle East and Gulf amid uprisings taking place across the Arab world.” Clinton herself has said that the Saudi women drivers “are acting on behalf of their own rights and not at the behest of outsiders like herself.” Again the question arises: How far can or will the US stick out its neck in supporting pro-democracy movements in Arab countries, while maneuvering to protect its own interests?
Źródło: http://www.care2.com/causes/5-saudi-women-arrested-for-driving.html
Austriacy nie ufają Kościołowi katolickiemu
27 lipca 2011r
Z sondażu przeprowadzonego przez pismo "Kurier" wynika, że większość Austriaków nie ma zaufania do Kościoła rzymskokatolickiego.
Zgodnie z danymi przedstawionymi przez gazetę aż 61 proc. Austriaków nie ma zaufania do Kościoła rzymskokatolickiego, 35 proc. z nich deklaruje, że ufa Kościołowi, a 4 proc. nie ma zdania na ten temat.
Komentując wyniki sondażu, dziennikarze "Kuriera" piszą, że niskie zaufanie do Kościoła w Austrii jest spowodowane przede wszystkim skandalami dotyczącymi pedofilii, które miały miejsce w ostatnich latach w wielu krajach Europy. Ich zdaniem w wielu przypadkach Kościół ukrywał przypadki pedofilii wśród księży i odmawiał współpracy z krajowymi wymiarami sprawiedliwości. W Austrii bardzo głośna jest też sprawa dwóch niemieckich prawników, Christiana Sailera i Gerta-Joachima Hetzela, którzy kilka miesięcy temu oskarżyli obecnego papieża, Benedykta XVI o ukrywanie pedofilii wśród księży i wysunęli wniosek o pociągnięcie go do odpowiedzialności karnej.
Sondaż został przeprowadzony w dniach 26–28 maja i wzięło w nim udział 1000 dorosłych mieszkańców Austrii.
Źródło: http://www.lewica.pl/?id=24744
Guatemala Introduces Women-Only Buses
27 July 2011
In an attempt to protect women from sexual harassment, IPS is reporting that Guatemala City’s transit system launched a women’s only bus pilot project a couple of weeks ago. There are now dozens of women-only buses running during peak hours (6:00 to 7:30 am and 5:30 to 7:00 pm). Other than drivers, the only males allowed on the buses are boys under the age of twelve. The pilot was introduced due to the large number of complaints about men groping and rubbing up against women and girls on buses.
These buses are a small step in helping women to feel safer in Guatemala, which the United Nations lists as one of the most violent countries. The buses being used in the pilot program are newer buses with improved safety measures, such as prepaid cards, video cameras and security guards on buses. While IPS reported that women do feel safer on these buses, they also noted “off the bus, harassment is still an issue.” Ultimately, the buses are not the solution to Guatemala’s problems, but they may help remove one small stressor from the lives of women who deal with violence day in and day out.
Guatemala City is not the first city to introduce women-only buses. There were also women-only buses introduced this month in Bandung, Indoensia. In 2010, women-only buses were introduced in Malaysia, and in 2008 they were introduced in Mexico City. Back in 2009, Care2 reported on several other female-only transportation initiatives:
Following what seems to be something of an international trend, the Mexican city of Puebla has offered a new service to women plagued by “leering drivers”: a fleet of taxis, driven by women and catering exclusively to women. This comes on the heels of women-only train cars in Japan and Brazil, all-female transportation in Tehran, and “ladies’ specials” in India, all designed to free women from the sexual harassment that public transportation seems inevitably to bring.
The problem, of course, with all of these women-only transportation initiatives is that they are treating the symptoms, rather than the causes of sexual harassment. Of course they are a good idea and help to provide women with some level of protection in an environment where they are unsafe. However the bigger challenge is addressing the culture that makes it both acceptable and common for women to be sexually harassed and abused. In the IPS article, Ana Silvia Monzón of the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences was quoted as saying: “I hope it’s only temporary and that men’s behaviour will improve, but for that to happen, other measures are needed as well.”
Source: http://www.care2.com/causes/guatemala-introduces-women-only-buses.html
It’s Cool To Be A Babushka! (VIDEO)
27 July 2011
To watch + read:
http://www.care2.com/causes/its-cool-to-be-a-babushka-video.html
Gdy matki zabijają córki
27 lipca 2011r
Oczekujemy, że kobiety, szczególnie matki, będą w stanie przeciwstawić się obyczajom społecznym, by uratować swoje dzieci. Czasem rzeczywistość jest jednak całkiem inna. Dwie muzułmańskie wdowy, żyjące w Uttar Pradesz w Indiach, pomogły sobie wzajemnie w zamordowaniu swoich dorosłych córek, Zahidy i Husny. Powodem zbrodni była miłość dziewcząt do nieodpowiednich mężczyzn.
Przytrzymywały swoje córki i powoli zadusiły je na śmierć. Zabite dziewczyny naprawdę wierzyły, że mają prawo do poślubienia nie-muzułmanów, do miłości i do tego, że społeczność muzułmańska ponownie je zaakceptuje. To jest typowe dla wielu ofiar morderstw honorowych. Te dwie młode kobiety wiedziały wystarczająco dużo, by skontaktować się z policją i prosić o pomoc. A ta istotnie zmusiła rodzicielki do podpisania zgody na to, że nie „skrzywdzą" swoich dzieci — był to jednak tylko nic nie warty kawałek papieru. Tęsknota córek do pojednania i naiwna nadzieja przyczyniły się do ich zguby. Matki zgodziły się ich nie skrzywdzić i namówiły do powrotu. Kiedy dziewczęta były już w domu, stały się zdobyczą przeznaczoną na ołtarz ofiarny. Życie poza kręgiem rodziny jest nie do pomyślenia dla kogoś, kogo tożsamość jest uzależniona od grupy i tak było w tym wypadku.
Żadna z matek, ani Chatun, ani Subrato, nie wyraziła najmniejszej skruchy. Obie czują się usprawiedliwione, ponieważ ich córki przyniosły hańbę swoim rodzinom. Według policji Chatun powiedziała: -Zabiłyśmy je, bo przyniosły hańbę naszej społeczności. Jak mogły uciec z hindusami? Zasłużyły na śmierć. Niczego nie żałujemy.
Oczekujemy, że kobiety, szczególnie matki, będą w stanie przeciwstawić się obyczajom społecznym, by uratować swoje dzieci. Rzeczywistość jest jednak całkiem inna. Najmniejsze wykroczenie, szczególnie dokonane przez kobiety, narusza olbrzymie sieci wzajemnych zależności i obala stabilność społeczną. Nikt nie zechce wziąć małżonka/małżonki ze „zhańbionej" rodziny. Rodzina taka będzie na zawsze bojkotowana, wyrzucona na margines społeczny i najprawdopodobniej skończy bez potomstwa. Matki, ojcowie, krewni są bardziej lojalni wobec zwyczajów społecznych swojego plemienia niż wobec jednostki, nawet jeśli ta jednostka jest ich własnym dzieckiem. To system wymaga takiego barbarzyństwa i przyzwala na nie, poświęcenie jednostki uważane jest za służbę większej, opartej na plemieniu lub kaście strukturze społecznej.
Ponadto nieludzkie traktowanie kobiety przez kobietę jest powszechnym zjawiskiem w Indiach, gdzie teściowe regularnie pomagają swoim synom w spaleniu synowej. Znane jest to jako „zabijanie za posag", ponieważ dokonuje się tego, kiedy nowa panna młoda nie może przynieść dodatkowego zysku ubogiej lub po prostu zbyt chciwej rodzinie. W więzieniu w New Delhi jest specjalne skrzydło dla takich teściowych. Zabójstwa dziewczynek są od dawna praktykowane zarówno w Indiach, jak w Chinach. Często zdarza się, że zarówno kobiety jak i mężczyźni kradną dzieci w Indiach i sprzedają je do adopcji za granicę, najczęściej do niewoli seksualnej.
Co najdziwniejsze, sondaże pokazują, że kobiety w Indiach uważają, iż zasługują na bicie. Być może mówią w ten sposób, że kobiety po prostu powinny spodziewać się, że to się zdarzy. Wiele hinduskich i muzułmańskich matek odmawia przyjęcia z powrotem do domu ciężko pobitej nieletniej panny młodej. W Afganistanie często prowadzi to do samobójstwa, zazwyczaj przez samospalenie.
Uznanie należy się Sądowi Najwyższemu Indii, który niedawno oświadczył: - Pora położyć kres tym barbarzyńskim, feudalnym praktykom, które są plamą na naszym narodzie. Ale czy to pomoże?
Źródło: http://religia.onet.pl/racjonalisci,39/gdy-matki-zabijaja-corki,297.html
Skazane na prostytucję
27 lipiec 2011r
Do dalszego czytania:
http://religia.onet.pl/publicystyka,6/skazane-na-prostytucje,359,page1.html
Pracownik Blackwater zabił cywila - dostał za to 2,5 roku
27 lipca 2011r
Były pracownik firmy ochroniarskiej Blackwater został skazany przez sąd w USA na dwa i pół roku więzienia za zastrzelenie w maju 2009 roku w Kabulu nieuzbrojonego afgańskiego cywila. W poniedziałek prawnicy skazanego zapowiedzieli apelację.
Pracownik Blackwatera został uznany w marcu za winnego nieumyślnego zabójstwa. Do czasu rozpatrzenia apelacji pozostanie na wolności.
Wraz z innym pracownikiem firmy, również Amerykaninem, mężczyzna ostrzelał tył samochodu, który wyminął ich w ciemnościach po tym jak jeden z samochodów jadących w ich kolumnie miał wypadek. Pracownicy Blackwatera bez pozwolenia eskortowali do domu swojego tłumacza jadąc jedną z najbardziej niebezpiecznych dróg na świecie. Jego kompana skazano wcześniej na trzy lata więzienia.
Mężczyźni pracowali w Afganistanie jako szkoleniowcy dla firmy Paravant należącej do Blackwatera (dziś nazywa się Xe Corp.).
Holandia: Kościół katolicki zapłaci ofiarom księży pedofilów
27 lipca 2011r
Holenderski Kościół rzymskokatolicki zgodził się na wypłatę odszkodowań dla ofiar księży pedofilów w tym kraju. Porozumienie jest wynikiem pracy niezależnej komisji powołanej do zbadania seksualnego molestowania dzieci w instytucjach prowadzonych przez Kościół.
Komisja ustaliła, że co najmniej 1975 osób w dzieciństwie padło ofiarą molestowania seksualnego przez przedstawicieli Kościoła holenderskiego. Według rekomendacji komisji odszkodowania mają wynosić od 5 tysięcy do 100 tysięcy euro. Członkowie komisji zgodzili się też, że ofiarom księży pedofilów należą się przeprosiny oraz uznanie przez Kościół katolicki odpowiedzialności za ich cierpienia.
Holandia jest kolejnym krajem, w którym przyznano odszkodowania dla ofiar księży pedofilów. Procesy związane z pedofilią w Kościele katolickim rozpoczęły się około 10 lat temu. Sprawy związane z pedofilią wśród księży wyszły na jaw między innymi w Niemczech, Irlandii, Australii, Belgii, Austrii, Kanadzie i USA.
Źródło: http://www.lewica.pl/?id=24738
Swedish Preschool Eliminates Gender
27 July 2011
Sweden is known for being one of the most progressive countries in the world, and even their preschools are pushing the envelope. At “Egalia,” a taxpayer-funded preschool in a liberal district of Stockholm, teachers refrain from using gendered pronouns like “him” or “her,” and refer to the children as “friends,” rather than “boys” or “girls.” The school also carefully plans the color distribution of toys and choice of books so that children don’t fall into gendered stereotypes.
“Society expects girls to be girlie, nice and pretty and boys to be manly, rough and outgoing,” explained Jenny Johnsson. “Egalia gives them a fantastic opportunity to be whoever they want to be.”
The Swedes are dedicated to breaking down gender roles by making sure that early education has as few gendered expectations as possible. This means, at Egalia, no books that feature traditional gender roles or relationships – meaning few heterosexual couples, and lots of gay or single parents and adopted children. Conventional fairy tales, like “Cinderella,” or “Snow White,” are not permitted.
The school seems to be successful; there’s a long waiting list for admission and only one child has been removed. But their methods are still controversial and attract a great deal of attention, just like the Canadian couple who recently decided to raise their child gender-neutral.
Sweden is clearly a leader in gender equity as well as in gay rights, and I understand the desire to raise children, from a young age, to be blind to gender. But the question is whether the children will be able to function outside their preschool, or even within the context of their families. One of the most important issues is linguistic; at Egalia, teachers use a Swedish gender-neutral pronoun to avoid the fact that gender is built into the language. It’s unclear to me whether this is sustainable. Even if small children hear gender-neutral language in school, will their parents abide by it? If they do, more power to them – I tried to go through an entire session of a women’s studies class only using gender-neutral language, and failed after 20 minutes.
If nothing else, Egalia seems like a fascinating social experiment. And it could begin to prove that gender is, as feminists argue, a social construct. The question is whether it will be successful in the long run – and if a place like Egalia could exist anywhere except Sweden.
Source: http://www.care2.com/causes/swedish-preschool-eliminates-gender.html
Russian legislators under fire for proposed abortion restrictions
27 July 2011
A push by the Russian government to raise childbirth statistics has driven lawmakers to propose a bill limiting a pregnant woman's options for abortion. Critics oppose the initiative saying it is wrong and an ineffective way to deal with the problem.
When she heard she was pregnant again, Elena Semikhina had already been through two caesarian sections and had two healthy sons to make her life complete. Along with her diabetes, the third pregnancy was a huge risk. Now, though, she cannot imagine life without her Sasha.
“I look at my little miracle and cannot even imagine that once I had thoughts about getting rid of him,” she said. “I have never regretted my decision.”
Elena was able to make her choice freely. Had she wanted a termination, nothing would have stood in her way.
Abortion in Russia is available on request up to 12 weeks into the pregnancy, and is permitted at any stage if the pregnancy puts the mother’s life in danger.
The proposed legislation would end free abortions at state clinics and make women wait for a week before the termination to think over their decision. The “morning-after pill”, now available at any pharmacy, would also become prescription-only.
“If we managed to avert at least 20 per cent of abortions annually, we would have a clear increase in birth rates instead of a demographic decline,” said Igor Beloborodov, Director of Demographic Research Institute.
Tatiana Popova, a qualified psychologist working at one of Moscow’s maternity hospitals, says the stress of an unplanned pregnancy often makes women rush into a decision they might later regret.
“My task is not to talk a woman out of abortion, just show her the alternatives, so that she does not end up tormenting herself later with questions like how old the baby would have been now and what he or she would have looked like,” she said.
Experts say the only way forward is to give women the security needed to embark on motherhood.
Single mother Olga Myasnikova found the help she was so desperate for at a Moscow charity, which now provides food for her increased family.
“My husband left me when I was pregnant,” she said. “I did not have any means to feed the kids I already had, let alone raise another one.”
However, opponents of the proposed legislation believe limiting a woman’s choice breaches her health rights and human rights.
“My body is my business” is just one of their slogans.
“History shows that banning abortions has never led to a baby boom,” one of the activists told RT.
When the Soviet Union outlawed abortions in 1936, the result was an enormous increase in the maternal death rate.
That is what doctors fear most – that restrictions on legal abortions will only push women to find risky backstreet alternatives, even if it threatens their health and life.
Some believe that restricting abortions could lead to more women abandoning their newborn children.
“In Russia 40 per cent of women decide against pregnancy,” said Galina Dikke from the Department of Reproductive Medicine and Surgery. “If a woman is determined not to have children, she will not, and that includes simply abandoning them.”
Abandoned children did not choose to come into this world and be deprived of their basic right for parental love. One day they might find someone to call their family. However, the issue is whether restricting abortions will lead to more children abandoned after being born against their mothers’ will.
Source: http://rt.com/news/abortions-russia-restrictions/
Norway tests Russian women for maternal instinct
27 July 2011
Another Russian woman, who lives in Norway, has addressed to Pravda.Ru for help. Irina Nolund is having a legal dispute with local social services which took away the woman's child. The authorities of Norway claim that the Russian woman is incapable of raising the child. Moreover, they say the woman does not have the maternal instinct. The boy, who is not even two, was transferred to a foster family.
Irina gave birth to her first and only child when she was 42 years old. The woman has had 13 miscarriages before. Her successful pregnancy became the easiest one, which is very surprising. According to Irina, she didn't have any problems at all during the pregnancy. She gave birth to a healthy baby boy. When he turned 14 months, tests showed that the boy was developing very fast: he was eight months ahead of his peers. Social services of Norway took the child away from his mother when he was only 16 months old.
Irina was told during the pretrial hearings that she would be deprived of custody of her child till the boy turns 18 years. She was allowed to see the child only four times a year, for three hours per meeting. The woman was told that if she wanted to see her son more often than ordered, she may cause damage to the child's psyche.
Irina Nolund was not planning to move to Norway. She would often visit Norway before for business to buy goods for a shop in Murmansk - her home city. She met her future husband during one of such visits.
"Our affair was developing very quickly. He was saying that I should move to Norway, that we should get married," Irina said. It turned out later that her husband was unemployed and had a very large debt. He was not paying for his house for almost a year. As it usually happens in Russia, Irina started to solve her husband's problems. She started paying the debt for him.
"I then realized that I was a profitable wife for him. I was 16 years younger, I was independent and I had money," she said.
Irina could speak the Norwegian, so she found a job at a local food store and started working. Her family life did not work, though. The woman left the husband after six years of life. She was fed up with his scandals and extortions. Some time later, she met another man, who became the father of her child.
Some time late, the woman broke up with her common-law husband. Irina started living alone with her child, but she also started having health problems. The woman realized that she would not be able to raise her son alone. She asked child protection services for help.
Also read: Russian woman desperately fights for her abused children in Norway
"I was hoping that they would help me find a baby sitter, at least for several hours a day or for weekends. However, they offered me a place in a kindergarten, which was an hour walk away from my home," she said.
She later learned that the services were supposed to pay taxi bills, although no one told her anything about it. In a state of despair, she took several sleeping pills, but called the ambulance afterwards.
"I explained to the psychologist later that I was not trying to commit suicide. It was a howl of despair. I wanted them to pay attention to my situation," she said.
The woman attracted attention indeed: she was sent to a rehab. Afterwards, she was recommended to undergo a special course in a center for problematic families. If she had not agreed, the services would have taken the child away from her immediately.
"Me and my son were accommodated in a basement near the laundry, which was working 24 hours a day. The child could not sleep because of the noise. My legs were aching, and it was very hard for me to walk up and down the stairs all the time. I was asking for help, but they would decline all my requests," the woman said.
Irina was sent to work at the kitchen. When she said that she could not work there anymore, everyone though that the woman simply did not want to live by local rules. Irina was breaking many rules indeed. She would argue with psychologists about raising children - she was trying to defend her point of view. She though that her opinions meant something. Irina also thought that she would be treated as a mother who was responsible for her son.
"You see, never-ending pressure and control is not the most terrible thing. They don't listen to me at all - this is what's horrible. You are trying to explain something, but they just look at you as if you don't even exist," Irina said.
The assessment report from child protection services said that Irina was incapable of raising her child. The document also said that the woman was mentally unhealthy and could not play with the boy. Aside from that, Irina was shocked to read that she had no maternal instinct.
"I can be accused of having a hyper-instinct. I gave birth to my son at not a very young age and I was cherishing him as much as I could," she said.
"Local child protection services are incredibly powerful in this country. All they say is decisive, even if their statements are not substantiated by medical specialists," Irina said.
Being foster parents is very profitable in Norway. For each child the state pay the allowance between 300-500 thousand krones ($90,000) a year. There is also an additional monthly payment of up to 10,000 krones for clothes, etc. If a child lives for two years with a foster family, no one will be able to return the child to their parents afterwards.
"I know a woman, who had her two children taken away from her. The court in Strasbourg found in her favor, but Norwegian officials said that they could not return the kids to their mother, because the children had been living with foster parents for more than two years," Irina said.
Nowadays, Irina helps other woman to deal with the problems of Norwegian laws. She became a member of public organization called "Women Can". "I will fight for my child till the end." It is frightful to imagine what kind of end it may be.
Source: http://english.pravda.ru/society/stories/24-06-2011/118308-norway_russian_woman-0/
Mankind ready to eat its own faeces
27 July 2011
Businessmen of the world begin to invest in human faeces. The Bill Gates Foundation is allocating $1.5 million for the project to process human excrement into methane and biodiesel fuel. The Japanese found their own special way for gaining profit from their own excrement. They put forward an idea to turn faeces into meat. It seems that they have created the food of the future for billions of those living in the third world.
Human excrement has become particularly interesting for agricultural specialist and those seeking alternative fuel. According to them, human wastes, which represent concentrated organic material, is much more efficient in terms of energy than other types of biological fuel.
Spokespeople for the Bill Gates Foundation believe that scientists will be able to invent a new, alternative source of fuel. Apparently, they do not know that faeces as fuel is a moth-eaten theory.
Marine vessels use systems with special bacteria that turn excrement into H2O. The first vessel, which was equipped with this system, was the Pioneer of Moldavia, a timber carrying vessel.
Modern-day technologies allow to produce both synthetic petrol and fuel gas from waste waters. Hydrocarbon fuel is received from biogas with the help of the thermal reactor. Such systems are already used in cattle breeding. A ton of animal excrement gives 60-65 cubic meters of biogas. The production of biogas from chicken manure is the largest - 130 cubic meters from one ton.
The idea to use human excrement for the production of fuel appeared not so long ago. There is a mini heating and electric station working on biogas in Moscow. The station was launched during Luzhkov's stay in the office, but the idea did not become popular much.
The idea to use human wastes as sources of heat looks reasonable indeed. However, as it usually happens, the Japanese do it better. Japanese scientists achieved the real fecal breakthrough in the world. They synthesized food from human wastes.
The story started when a Tokyo-based service company asked scientists to find a solution to a fecal problem. They asked them to find a way how to use tons and tons of faeces, which the Japanese capital produces.
The scientists came up with something unthinkable. The most technologically advanced nation in the world has created edible fecal meat. The new meat was used in so-called shitburgers. Those insane volunteers who ate the burgers said that they tasted like ordinary meat. What else could they say? A shitburger contains 63 percent of proteins, 25 percent of carbs, as well as some fats and minerals.
Source: http://english.pravda.ru/business/companies/21-06-2011/118270-faeces-0/
Ukamienowali ją, ciało podpalili, bo… odeszła od męża
27 lipca 2011r
Na terenach plemiennych Pakistanu ukamienowano kobietę oskarżoną o odejście od męża. Do zabójstwa doszło w rejonie Doliny Swat, odległej o niecałe 200 kilometrów od stolicy kraju Islamabadu. Do niedawna działały tam ugrupowania talibów żądające wprowadzenia na tym terenie prawa koranicznego, szariatu.
Na skutek nieporozumień z mężem kobieta przeniosła się do domu swej matki. Dzień przed tragedią została wezwana przez lokalną radę plemienną do wyjaśnienia swej decyzji. Gdy pojawiła się przed wioskową starszyzną samozwańczy sędziowie skazali ją na ukamienowanie za opuszczenie męża.
Egzekucji dokonało ponad 10 mężczyzn, którzy następnie podpalili ciało kobiety. W tradycji plemiennej Pakistanu tego typu zabójstwa określane są mianem honorowych.
Podobne przypadki zdarzały się w Pakistanie już wcześniej. Amina Khan, wywodząca się z plemiennej społeczności Pasztunów przypomina, iż w jej rodzinnych stronach ukamienowanych zostało dwoje młodych ludzi, których małżeństwa nie akceptowała lokalna rada plemienna. - Zwołali radę starszyzny, uznali ich za winnych i zostali ukamienowani - wyjaśnia. Zdaniem Aminy Khan działania te nie są zgodne z islamem. - To, co talibowie robią wobec kobiet, to nie jest szariat - mówi.
Sprawę ostatniego ukamienowania kobiety z Doliny Swat bada policja.
USA: Sąd Najwyższy odrzucił pozew o dyskryminację
27 lipca 2011r
Półtora miliona kobiet, pracujących w największej sieci supermarketów na świecie Wal-Mart, złożyło zbiorowy pozew do Sądu Najwyższego USA, oskarżając firmę o dyskryminację ze względu na płeć. Według pracownic mężczyźni zarabiają więcej i częściej awansują.
Sędziowie odrzucili pozew uznając, że zbiorowy pozew narusza federalne przepisy dotyczące takich pozwów. Ich zdaniem zróżnicowanie stanowisk kobiet, pracujących w trzech i pół tysiącach sklepów na terenie całego kraju z różnymi kierownikami powoduje, że nie mają one ze sobą wystarczająco dużo wspólnego, by występować razem.
Prawnik reprezentujący pracownice Wal-Martu Joseph Sellers stwierdził, że jest to zwycięstwo dużych firm, ponieważ moim zdaniem z decyzji sądu wynika po części, że istnieją firmy zbyt duże, by pociągnąć je do odpowiedzialności na jednym forum za tego typu praktyki. Dodał on, że obecnie rozważana jest możliwość złożenia pozwów przez mniejsze grupy lub skarg indywidualnych.
Źródło: http://www.lewica.pl/?id=24707
