The Holocaust Memorial Day in honor of the Warsaw ghetto uprising was just observed. As I saw the survivors going up to the stage in Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust Memorial, I saw a generation that will soon be no longer. And so it will be our task to remember.
More than remembering is required. We live in times that require action. We see double talk and ignoring threats of genocide. We see the Iranian President as a guest of the UN whilst threatening another member state with genocide. This is against the organization's own rules and yet...
The Holocaust was different from other genocides. It was a systematic mass murder in an industrial manner. There was no regional conflict or two armies. It was evil and hatred.
Evil is always among us but we must choose to fight it. Let us remember what the Lord commanded: " So choose life that you and your children may live..." Our choices are important and we must choose again and again and today again. What we do to remember and speak the truth is the choice that leads to life!
EU and human rightsEU foreign ministers just had a meeting with their Central Asian collegues to discuss security cooperation and gas related projects. The importance of cooperation in the energy field was stressed, which is not surprising in light of the recent political developments in the region. However, the meeting does raise serious questions about EU's real commitment to human rights when faced with current reality. At the time of the meeting Reporters Without Borders held a demonstration.
Curiously, human rights and abuses were not even mentioned by Solana or Ferrero-Waldner, who made speeches following the meeting. On the contrary, it was almost implied that the Central Asian countries are close to EU in their values and commitment to human rights. This raises the question how committed is the EU to those rights if they are so quickly sold for energy...
Curious and curioser, said Alice in Wonderland...
Situation in Georgia is burningHow can it be that again Putin gets away with it? Everyone in their right mind knows what he is all about. Murdered journalists, cruelty, rape and murder in Chechnya and now this. What is so sad is that he does get away with it because the EU has no guts to stand by Georgia and USA weakened by other political issues is not going to intervene forcefully enough.
It saddens anyone to see that the EU is not even calling the aggression what it is. It saddens to see that when the moment of truth comes, a small state is left on its own. It does signal nothing good in terms of future dealings with Iran or Russia for that matter. It also serves to show other small states of the region that they will sooner be protected by Russia or Iran than weak USA or powerless EU. Iran knows that EU will not do anything concrete about its nuclear ambitions and Russia knows that it can act with impunity and continue selling whatever it wants to, whomever it wants to.
If Russia is left getting away with it, it does not bode well for the future and only serves to embolden aggression everywhere.
King Leopold's CongoHave you heard about the colonial abuses in Congo by Kind Leopold's colonial government; then by the Belgian colonial authorities following his death? Read the book "King Leopold's Ghost" and you will never feel the same again about sitting at the Quartiere Leopold in Brussels or in the many places bearing the king's name. You will feel horrified.
Millions died in King Leopold's Congo and yet more were mutilated; usually their hands cut off but often other body parts too. Belgian school books don't mention this; Belgians are blissfully ignorant of the reality. The big African Museum of Brussels doesn't show the cruelties. Unbelievable especially when bearing in mind that Belgium has the famous law allowing prosecution of human rights abuses anywhere.
Everywhere except in Belgium or by Belgians it seems.
Afghan girls still largely out of schoolsThanks to international donors about 50-55% of Afghan children are now going to school. School in Afghanistan doesn't mean nice space with modern equipment, needless to say. Most pupils study in terrible old and dirty structures or tents. Still, one might argue that any school is better than no school. That is the good news.
Sadly, in many especially rural and thus more conservative areas, boys are sent to school rather than girls. Parents often refuse to send their daughters to a school to be taught by a male teacher - however, according to Oxfam (an international charity), only about 25% of all teachers are women. That then seems to be the root cause of the problem.
Would be interesting to know if donors could allocate their money only if a certain number of female pupils and students will be among its recipients. Another option would be to arrange urgent teacher training for women. The Afghan government seems to be interested in solving these problems; it may be hard to change the years of Taliban anti-woman atmosphere but with some pressure from donor countries this is possible. On some level then, the ball is at the donors' court.
We, you and I, have to make sure that our governments are aware of this issue. Western money should only go where it is spent in a way that benefits the recipients in the long run.
Isabel Allende's "Daughter of Fortune" is still contemporary - how sad a realityA while ago, on Freedom Day (March 25), I had the possibility to participate on an anti-trafficking event in Brussels. Yesterday, I had the possibility to read and finish the above book. Whilst the March event concentrated on prostitution and trafficking of mainly Eastern European women to Western Europe for purposes of forced prostitution, Allende's events take place first in Chile, then in California of the gold rush years in the 1850's. Despite the periodical distance, the similarities of situations are so large that the connection becomes disturbing.
At the anti-trafficking event a pastor, accompanied by two former trafficking and forced prostitution victims, told about his work in the red light district of Antwerpen. Almost all of Western European cities have similar districts so it doesn't really matter where he comes from. Anyway, women are lured under various pretexts to leave their families and countries. Their passports are taken away and they are repeatedly violated by their smugglers and captors until they realize that they have no escape from their hopeless situation. They are auctioned, sold, resold, violated and raped repeatedly. Sometimes they are killed when they are no longer sufficiently beautiful or young - and that life makes a woman old in no time. The women spend their time servicing, how many "customers" ever their pimp forces them to see. Violence is routinely used and at the end of a "work day" all money goes to the pimp.
In Allende's book, Chinese women (among others) are trafficked into California under similar pretexts. They are violated by sailors on the ship on the way to California, then they are auctioned to pimps, chained into a bed in a small room where they have to service customers. When they get ill, they are killed. Similarly to the pastor of the first story, the Chinese man, who tries to help them, has to be careful because the pimps would easily have him killed.
Eastern European men, and even some women, are lying to and selling women to horrible abuse, rape and murder. Western European men are buying these women just the way the were bought in the 1850's. Nothing has changed. Police is complacent all over the world claiming lack of evidence. Sufficient evidence would be to go and see if these girls have their own passports. Any adult not in possession of his/her own travel documents can be within reason thought of as a trafficking victim.
To quote Allende:
"
When the little sinsong girls were too sick to continue working, they were taken to the "hospital",as they called the secret rooms...and left there with a cup of water, a little rice and a little lamp with oil enough for a few hours. The door was opened again some days later when somone went in to be sure the girl was dead. If she was alive, she was killed; none ever saw sunlight again."
This is the reality of the 1850's and today's world. No one ever sees sunlight again!
More on chocolateMany are curious, how does one know what chocolate to buy then. There is a list at the
Stop the Traffik web site. But the sure thing is that Fairtrade chocolate is not made by using slavery. So any chocolate marked Fairtrade is a good buy.
The best thing is to ask the chocolate makers. I mean - can one continue buying chocolate knowing that one is contributing to such a horrible crime? I say no.
Until there is a label on my chocolate saying "slave free", I am afraid I cannot eat it...And I urge you to do the same.
